Skip to Sub Navigation Skip to Main Navigation Skip to A to Z Index Skip to Admissions

Protection

(The following general  information is provided for both on and off campus situations.)

  • If you are notified of a tornado warning, you should alert the building occupants and move to the safest place in your building and/or complex.  DO NOT PULL A FIRE ALARM - we do not want anyone leaving the safety of the building.  Students, faculty, and staff should not leave the building until they are notified that the danger has passed.  It is helpful to keep flashlights handy as a power outage may occur during this type of storm.
  • Safe places to seek shelter include basements of modern, steel-reinforced office and classroom buildings, storm shelters, tunnels, caves, cellars, sub-basements, basements, interior corridors, and subways.  Dangerous places to seek shelter include auditoriums, gymnasiums, aircraft hangars, modular buildings, structures with wide, free span roofs, upper stories of office buildings, glass enclosed areas, and vehicles.
  • The basement or ground floor interior corridor usually offers the greatest safety in campus buildings.  Seek shelter in the middle of the building.  Take cover under heavy furniture in the center of an interior hallway against a strong, inside wall on the lower floor.
  • Motor vehicles do not offer adequate protection from a tornado.  Violent winds can roll a vehicle over, crushing it and its occupants.  Encourage everyone to remain in the building and not attempt to drive.
  • No matter where you are, keep a battery-powered radio with you, if available, and listen to weather information so that you will know when the warning is lifted.  Call the weather bureau and emergency response agencies only to report a tornado or request emergency assistance.  Radio and television stations will broadcast the latest tornado advisory information.
  • If caught in the open, move away from the tornado's path at a right angle.  If there is no time to escape, lie flat in the nearest depression such as a ravine or ditch.
  • Follow the instructions of emergency response personnel or remain in the hallway until the Campus Police, Safety Officer, Fire Department, Emergency Management, or other emergency response personnel give the all clear.

Tornado Preparation (pdf) | Safest Places List (pdf) | Building Runners List (pdf)

©2007 Middle Tennessee State University, a Tennessee Board of Regents institution
1301 East Main Street, Murfreesboro, TN 37132-0001 USA +1.615.898.2300

Middle Tennessee State University, in its educational programs and activities involving students and employees, does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, or age. Furthermore, the university does not discriminate against veterans or individuals with disabilities.