Go inside a building, car or truck.

Avoid elevated places and isolated trees.

Crouch down and keep your head as low as possible.

Avoid contact with electrical appliances.

If you see someone struck by lightning, check their breathing and pulse, If necessary start CPR immediately (It’s OK to touch them, they are NOT electrically charged.)

Tornado Safety Tips

At school, at work, and where you live you should know which direction is west and which direction is southwest. Tornadoes come from those directions.

Tornadoes can form at any hour of the day or night, but a tornado is most likely to hit between 3pm and 9pm.

Don't waste time opening windows. Instead get away from them. Get away from doors and outside walls.

A closet offers good protection, and many have survived a tornado by being in the bathtub. Here the plumbing in the walls can make them more resistant to breaking apart.

But the best place to be is down in your basement. Get there as fast as you can and cover your head, maybe with a strong table or a mattress.

But what if you don't have a basement. A large number of our viewers live in high-rises. If you do live in a high-rise and you think there might be a tornado coming, get out of your room and into the hallway, if possible on the lowest level of the buildings. Do not use the elevator.

And never stay inside a mobile home. If no substantial shelter is nearby get into a ditch or a low area and lie flat on the ground.

Flood Safety Tips

If you live near a river, it is very important that you know your elevation above flood stage. You should understand what stage the river must reach for your property to be affected by water.

In times of flash flooding it is recommended you move immediately to higher ground.

Do not attempt to walk through flood waters because a swift current can knock you off your feet.

Never attempt to drive through water because just 2 feet of moving water can float a car. If your car stalls, get out and go to higher ground.

Before a major river flood occurs move valuable items to the second story level.

Have a supply of fresh water on hand, along with flashlights, and a battery powered radio.

Should you be forced to evacuate, turn off all utilities such as water, gas, and electricity before evacuating.

WNEP-TV 16 can help

Watch WNEP-TV 16 for the following items…

Stormtracker First Alert that can warn you of storms. This is the crawl you see at the bottom of your screen and it tells you where the storms are and when to expect them in your area.

WNEP-TV's Realtime Doppler Radar is the best way to show you exactly where the storms are as they are happening. The Stormtracker 16 Realtime Doppler Radar is the only LIVE radar available in our area. We can zoom in on the storm to show you which town, which neighborhood, which street it is approaching. Our Doppler Radar system can also display all the cloud-to-ground lightning strikes in our area.

During severe weather our weather computers receive all the weather warnings plus information about the speed, direction, height and circulation of a storm. They turn that information into the maps you see on the air.

WNEP-TV has a network of Stormtrackers scattered all over Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania who can report to us and therefore to you in almost any situation.

For more on how we get all this information to air, take our Virtual Tour which includes a tour of the Stormtracker 16 Weather Center.