storm warnings, radios and shelters - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Auburn War Eagle · RV-Dreams Family Member

storm warnings, radios and shelters

galeanna · RV-Dreams Family Member

We haven't been in that situation ourselves in that area but my parents are fulltimers (almost 20 yrs) and have told us that some of the parks they have been in (in tornado alley) have actually come door to door to be sure everyone was aware of the storm situation and let people know where to go. Anna & Gale

wmalefyt · RV-Dreams Family Member

A few years ago a small tornado came through a campground near Egg Harbor in Door County, WI. All the campers sought shelter in the concrete block bathroom/shower building and survived as that was the only structure still standing! Lots of trees were down all over the campground and several RV's were damaged. We weren't there, but lived just down the road in a park model we bought for weekends and summer vacations.

I'm sure Howard or some of the other posters can give you more information on the weather radios.

Bill

Linda · Hostess

Ann,

We do leave the radio on all the time. It even has a battery bank in case the electricity goes off.

When we arrive at a new destination, we program in the county we are in and several of the surrounding counties. The radio sounds an alarm that can wake the dead for any warnings, watches and even Amber Alerts. There are so many things the radio can inform you about (boil water alert, chemical spills etc)

The warnings usually reference a city or town and how many miles away and what direction the storm is traveling. We look at our maps if we don't recognize the town and determine if we are in the line of the storm.

A bathhouse seems to be the most common place for campers to take shelter.

We are so glad that we have the radio and recommend one to everyone.

I hope that answers your questions.

Auburn War Eagle · RV-Dreams Family Member

Linda or anyone,

Can you make a recommendation on a weather radio and brand.(where can they be purchased?)

Thanks!!
Ann smile

emeacham · RV-Dreams Family Member

We also have a weather radio. I found it on the internet, it's an Oregon Scientific. I think it cost around $50 including shipping. Radio Shack also sells them, probably for around $35 - $50. It's easy to program, I just keep a link in my favorites to NOAA's website that lists all the county codes. I also program in the county we're in plus several surrounding counties. Our radio has a standby setting so that it's not "on" all the time, but will sound an alarm if there is a watch or warning.

We've had early warnings, but last night the warning came after the worst of the storm had already started. Luckily, there were no tornadoes associated with it.

I also ask the office when we check in to a park where the closest shelter is.

Happy (and safe) travels!
Ellie

Linda · Hostess

Ann,

On this forum go to Technology on the Road topic. In that topic you will find Weather Radio post. Howard has put a picture and a link for the radio we have. biggrin

Travelin Duo · RV-Dreams Family Member

We will be buying one for sure.

Thanks for the info.

-- Edited by Travelin Duo at 01:29, 2008-07-27

Judy · RV-Dreams Family Member

We also have a weather radio with backup in case electric goes out and believe me it works. I would recommend to all to have one if full-timing.
southwestjudy

jdensie · RV-Dreams Family Member

Right after we went fulltimming we bought a Weather Alert Radio. While in Florida last winter, the TV news related that there were possible tornados in the forcast. We even told our fellow campers that we had the radio and if anything happened we would alert them. No alerts throughout the night. Only to find out the next day that the Weather Station had techanical problems and was down for the night.
There were tornados about 75 miles from us, we were safe

retread · RV-Dreams Family Member

I've been browsing the threads for the past 1/2 hour as it seems a big portion of the Southeast is in for severe weather alerts for the next 3 days! cry

The weather channel brings a mixed bag of comfort and anxiety with the amount of information and predictions! The info on the threads is helpful and we have a weather radio so we sit tight, pray and plot our path through the southeast back toward Vicksburg, MS and Texas in the next week or so. I also spied a pool table in the recreation building here that I would like to hide under with the kids, dogs and dh if things get really scary!

What about hail? We thought about pulling the slides in on our 5th wheel to try to minimize the damage if a hail storm crops up. Any other suggestions?

Cindy T · RV-Dreams Family Member

Ellie mentioned the NOAA website that lists the county codes. I've been looking around on the NOAA website (www.noaa.gov) but I can't find the county codes. Can someone advise me where to find these codes? Thanks!!

Luvglass · RV-Dreams Family Member

\We bought a weather radio when we first came out on the forums recommendations and found that we never used it, so it got put away in a drawer. We are at McKinney Falls State Park in Austin now and were unpleasantly surprised when we had a knock on the door Wednesday evening and the Ranger told us that there was a tornado watch and we might have to seek shelter if it became a tornado warning. Needless to say we went scrambling to find the radio, but discovered that we had misplaced the instruction book and didn't remember how to program it, so didn't trust it.

Cut to the chase - I turned on the computer and went to the Weather Underground
http://www.wunderground.com/
and we got up to the minute information on the storms track and intensity. If the storm had gotten bad enough we would have lost satellite reception at some point, but that would have been enough of a warning.

Just and option if you don't have a radio, or are as lame as us and have lost the instructions.

Fred

RVDude · RV-Dreams Family Member

Fred's goes underground and so do I!!!

WeatherUnderground has so many local/home stations on line chances are you'll find a weather report just a couple miles from your location. They also have a RapidFire update alert feature for the very latest info. The long range tools are simply superb and are what I use to find breaks in the storms in order to sneak across the northern country during the middle of winter to (mostly) avoid the snow/ice.

Of course, it does require an internet connection - which during the darkest part of a storm might not be available...

Toto, oh Toto where are you?

NorCal Dan · RV-Dreams Family Member

Here is a site with the SAME codes for your radios:

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/indexnw.htm

Weather is my hobby...if I can help let me know...