Emergency Procedures

Emergency Procedures

Tornado Instructions

From Environmental Health and Safety Services – Campus Mail Box 157

Protection: (The following 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: Tornadoes are most likely to occur in mid-afternoon, generally between 3pm and 7pm although they can occur at any time. Movement is generally from southwest to northeast. The cloud associated with a tornado is a dark, thunderstorm cloud from which a whirling funnel-shaped pendent extends to or near the ground. Rain usually precedes the tornado, frequently with hail, and as a heavy downpour.

Tornado Watch: A tornado watch is the first alert message issued by the weather bureau. A tornado watch is issued when the conditions are favorable for the formation of a tornado. The local National Weather Service will issue a watch bulletin to the local authorities, as well as the local media. A “watch” specifies the potentially affected area(s) and time-frame during which tornado formation is highly probable. Watches are not warnings. Until a warning is issued, you should not interrupt your normal routine except to stay tuned to the radio or television, and look for threatening weather.

Tornado Warning: A tornado warning is issued when a tornado is actually sighted visually in the immediate area or by radar. A warning gives the location of the tornado at the time of detection, the area through which it is expected to move, and the time period during which it will pass the area. When a tornado warning is issued, persons in the path of the storm should take immediate safety precautions. If you actually sight a tornado funnel, move to shelter immediately. A campus-wide emergency warning siren system is being planned for the near future.

Snow Closing

If MTSU closes due to snow or icing this winter, information will be relayed to the area radio and television stations, which are listed below.

If MTSU classes are canceled, the announcement will apply to all classes, credit and non-credit.

Offices at MTSU will be considered open unless the announcement specifically says they will be closed.

Radio stations

  • WMOT-FM 89.5
  • WSM-AM 650
  • WGNS-AM 1450
  • WLAC-AM 1510

Television stations

  • WKRN-TV Ch. 2
  • WSMV-TV CH. 4
  • WTVF-TV Ch. 5
  • WZTV – Fox 17
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