Rise in people getting too close to tornadoes - WSFA.com: News Weather and Sports for Montgomery, AL.

Rise in people getting too close to tornadoes

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By Katherine Kington -  bioemail

COLUMBUS, GA (WTVM) -  In the past months, we've seen more and more of these home videos of people risking their lives to film tornadoes.

Chief Meteorologist Derek Kinkade says waiting until the last minute to get into a safe place is not worth it. "In cases like that there are higher cases of injury and higher risk of death from these storms we want people to go ahead and put down the camera, phone and get in a safe place."

One of the largest problems victims of tornadoes face they think they have more time than they actually do. "There's plenty of lead time, the time between the warning and when the tornado hits, there's plenty of time to get into their safe place, not time to grab the video camera."

But what if you're not taking pictures and you're in your car when a tornado touches down.

Derek says try to listen ahead of time and delay your travels in severe weather, but when all else fails, "Immediately pull off the road to some sort of structure, whether that be a store, a gas station, a restaurant somewhere."

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