Tornadoes occur with the greatest frequency during late spring and early summer months between the hours of 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), every one of Texas’ 254 counties has seen at least one tornado between 1950 and 2023.  The most active region in Texas for tornados is the Red River Valley of North Texas.

According to Rogers Edwards of the Storm Prediction Center in Norman Oklahoma, “The most important part of tornado safety in schools is to develop a good tornado safety plan tailored to your building design and ability to move people. Every school is built differently. The idea of a relatively safe hallway becomes invalid if the hall is lined with plate glass, or if it has windows to the outdoors. Hallways can turn into wind tunnels filled with flying glass and other dangerous objects.

With 10,000 tornadoes reported in Texas since 1950, it is not a matter of if a tornado will strike but when. A carefully developed tornado drill should be run several times a year to keep students and staff in good practice, and to work out any kinks in the drill before it is needed for real. School administrators need to evaluate the time, space, traffic flow and coordination needed to direct all the kids and staff down into safe areas in an organized manner. That will require a customized drill which will vary from building to building.”

Things to consider when developing a good tornado safety plan:

Seconds Count

If it takes more than 2 or 3 minutes to move all upper-floor people down, things get really risky! Though the average lead (advance) time on tornado warnings has gone up a lot in recent years, remember that the average still includes some warnings with NO lead time, or just a minute or two. Warnings are not absolutely perfect, radars can’t see everything, and tornadoes don’t always touch down miles away and make themselves visible before hitting. Plan for a reasonable worst-case scenario — a tornado is spotted very close by, and hits with little or no warning. That way, during the majority of cases when there are warnings with several minutes of lead time, the plan can be executed and those people are all in a safe place within one or two minutes of the first alert. That is the ultimate goal. Now, how do you define a “safe place?” There is no guaranteed “safe place” in a tornado.

Flying Debris

is the biggest tornado hazard. That’s why one needs to put as many walls as possible between oneself and the tornado. Are there interior hallways, rooms or corridors on the second floor which are NOT exposed to the outside through windows, doors or walls of glass? If not, then it can turn into a death trap of flying broken glass. If there are enough enclosed places on the second floor with no direct exposure to the exterior, perhaps you can save the time needed to move people down one floor.

Building Strength

Architecturally, how sound is the construction of the main building? What interior parts can stay intact during total structural loads created by 150-200 mph winds (which exceed the speeds found in most tornadoes) from any direction? Is anyplace on an upper floor safe enough in such structural stresses? To best answer that, consult a professional architectural engineer — preferably one who has wind engineering experience. Sure, there are budgets to make; and such expertise won’t come cheap — but it can ultimately save lives. FEMA also has an online discussion on construction of community tornado shelters, including those for schools. Other valuable sources for help are your local emergency manager’s office, and the Warning Coordination Meteorologist (WCM) at your nearest National Weather Service office.

New Construction

Although this guide is intended for existing facilities, many of the same concepts can be applied to making tornado-safe schools from the blueprint stage. The same questions about wind damage and tornado safety should be asked of the architects and engineers. Again, this is where a licensed engineer with wind engineering specialization would be the most beneficial; and the FEMA tornado shelter guides are great resources too. FEMA also offers positive examples from Kansas of school tornado-sheltering work. Even if hiring a professional engineer isn’t an option, the builder can line with concrete enough interior rooms in the school to create a series of safe rooms to hold students. Safe rooms aren’t just for houses! They can also be retrofitted into existing facilities; but that is usually much costlier than building them in new construction.

Portable Classrooms

These can be death traps. Portable classrooms are most often constructed like mobile homes; and they are just as dangerous. Any sound tornado safety plan must include getting students out of portable classrooms and into a safe area in the main building, as quickly as possible, to minimize the time spend outside and exposed to the elements. While the seconds spent outside will pose considerable risk, the danger inside the trailer is just as great. If feasible, students should be evacuated from portable classrooms before the storm threatens — before the warning, when a tornado or severe thunderstorm watch is issued. Remember: Tornadoes can occur with little or no advance warning. Moving those students inside the main building for every SPC watch may be a hassle; but it may also save precious seconds and the lives of students if a tornado or extremely severe thunderstorm hits later.

Danger – Gyms and Auditoriums

Large, open-span areas, such as gymnasiums, auditoriums and most lunchrooms, can be very dangerous even in weak tornadoes, and should not be used for sheltering people. This sort of room has inherent structural weaknesses with lack of roof support, making them especially prone to collapse with weaker wind loading than more compact areas of the same school building.

Here are some advance strategies according to the NOAA:

1. Have a Megaphone

   If the school’s alarm system relies on electricity, have a compressed air horn or megaphone to sound the alert in case of power failure.

2. Make Special Provisions

   Make special provisions for disabled students and those in portable classrooms. Portable classrooms are like mobile homes — exceptionally dangerous in a tornado.

3. Turn Off Electricity/Gas

   Make sure someone knows how to turn off electricity and gas in the event the school is damaged.

4. Keep Children Beyond Regular Hours

   Keep children at school beyond regular hours if threatening weather is expected; and inform parents of this policy. Children are safer deep within a school than in a bus or car. Students should not be sent home early if severe weather is approaching, because they may still be out on the roads when it hits.

5. Postpone Large Room Gatherings

   Lunches or assemblies in large rooms should be postponed if severe weather is approaching. As illustrated above, gymnasiums, cafeterias, and auditoriums offer no meaningful protection from tornado-strength winds. Also, even if there is no tornado, severe thunderstorms can generate winds strong enough to cause major damage.

6. Keep a Paper Map

   Know the county/parish in which your school sits, and keep a highway map nearby to follow storm movement from weather bulletins. Online maps and weather sources can be valuable, but if the power is out, it helps to have paper maps.

7. Have a NOAA Weather Radio

   Have a NOAA Weather Radio with a warning alarm tone and battery back-up to receive warnings quickly and directly from your local National Weather Service office. A new technology called WRSAME allows you to set such weather radios to alarm for your county and surrounding counties; so look for the WRSAME feature when purchasing weather radio units.

8. Listen

   Listen to radio and television for information when severe weather is likely. Outlooks and watches from the Storm Prediction Center can also help you be aware of the possibility of severe weather during the school day.

After the Tornado

Keep students assembled in an orderly manner, in a safe area away from broken glass and other sharp debris, and away from power lines, puddles containing power lines, and emergency traffic areas. While waiting for emergency personnel to arrive, carefully render aid to those who are injured. Keep everyone out of damaged parts of the school; chunks of debris or even that whole section of the building may fall down. Ensure nobody is using matches or lighters, in case of leaking natural gas pipes or fuel tanks nearby. It is very important for teachers, principals and other adult authority figures to set a calm example for students at the disaster scene, and reassure those who are shaken.

Contact INSURICA to learn more about other ways to keep your schools safe.

This article is not intended to be exhaustive nor should any discussion or opinions be construed as legal advice. Readers should contact legal counsel or an insurance professional for appropriate advice.