Tornado Sheltering: The Viewpoint among Broadcast Meteorologists

Abstract The risk of significant loss of life from tornadoes remains high despite improvements in the warning processes. That is particularly true with vulnerable communities, which have higher proportions of mobile homes. As a result, public tornado shelters have been built in some communities and have become available to the public. However, their presence is intermittent, and there are many tornado-prone areas that lack such shelters. A public survey indicated there was unmet demand for tornado shelters and, at least in the most extreme circumstances, a large percentage of the population would be willing to utilize such. That said, communication was key to identifying their location and usefulness. Since broadcast meteorologists are one of the primary communicators of tornado warning information, a separate survey to measure their perceptions about public shelters was necessary. The survey of 210 broadcast meteorologists measured how often they emphasized tornado safety during routine broadcasts, how prominent tornado shelters were in the respondent’s television market area, how likely they would be to report from public shelters during tornado coverage, and how likely they would be to advocate for additional public shelters. Some regional differences were found. Broadcast meteorologists in the Deep South in particular mentioned the need for more shelters and advocated construction. They mentioned that mobile apps would be quite useful for the public to locate shelters.