‘Go over your plan’: Tornado drills to be held Thursday for Severe Weather Awareness Week

NOW: ‘Go over your plan’: Tornado drills to be held Thursday for Severe Weather Awareness Week
NEXT:

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- This week is Severe Weather Awareness Week in Wisconsin. A week to educate and prepare for severe weather as we go into the late spring and summer months. Thursday is Tornado Drill Day, because of the pandemic this will be a virtual drill which means there will not be any EAS alerts on TV or Radio, you won't get a cell phone notification and your weather radio will stay silent unless you get the weekly test. The choice to sound tornado sirens will be optional by community so depending on where you live you may or may not hear the siren.

“[It’s] an opportunity for people to practice going to their safe space for tornado sheltering if a real tornado were to be issued and to discuss their plan with their family, potentially their workplace or for students to discuss it at school,” Wisconsin Emergency Management spokesman Andrew Beckett said. “Find time today to go over your plan and practice it.”

Use the drill times at 1:45 and 6:45 p.m. to figure out where your safe spot would be, even if you are out driving or shopping it's always good to know where you might need to go during a tornado warning. 

Experts say the safest place during a real tornado is a basement, if you don’t have one, experts say shelter in a ground-floor interior room, like a bathroom.

“Basically you want to put as much distance between the exterior walls of the home and yourself and your family,” Beckett said. “It’s really important to do these practices because when an actual emergency happens you want to make sure that you don’t have to hesitate, so that you know what you need to do right away when that warning is issued so that you can get to safety as quickly as possible.”

Beckett also added that sirens are meant for people outside and everyone should have an emergency weather radio inside their homes.

On Friday the CBS 58 Ready Weather Team will hold a Severe Weather Special on WMLW The M from 7-8 AM. The special will be streamed on Facebook Live where we want you to send in your weather questions.

Share this article: