PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — When a tornado is approaching and you are driving in a vehicle, what is the best way to stay safe?
Some people interviewed offered advice, including WPTV First Alert Meteorologist James Wieland.
Do you stay in the vehicle or seek shelter?
"The tornado was just going so fast and he was just stuck, I wouldn't know what to do," Qwalique Cuyler said in reaction to the tornado like the one that struck northern Palm Beach County on Saturday, including vehicles flipped over.
Michael Doria from West Palm Beach said: "I would try to find some kind of cover, a bridge and drive underneath and just pray we don't go blown away."
WPTV's Joel Lopez asked First Alert Meteorologist James Wieland: "So over the weekend we saw an EF2 tornado so what kind of damage can that cause?"
"An EF2 is about 130-mile-per-hour winds and what we saw it do is lift this ton and a half vehicle up in the air like it was nothing,"
Wieland said if you're caught in your car during a tornado, you should find shelter or buckle in.
"We used to think getting underneath the overpass was the safe place to be when in actuality that's not the thing to do at all. In fact that's worse because it speeds up the winds funneling underneath the overpass," Wieland said. "Plus you're going to clog up the road and you're still going to get hit by debris."
He said cars are designed for impact, but it's biggest weakness is the windows.
"That's where you're going to see the projectiles can go through any of these windows so what you want to do is bend down, get below the window if you can," said Wieland.
He said to avoid your steering wheel as the airbag could deploy, and not to try to outrun a tornado as they can move at speeds of 70+ mph.
"You gotta make that split-second decision on what's to be my best chances to survive," Wieland said.
He said it's best to stay weather aware and to avoid being on the roads when there's a threat of a tornado.
