Florida High School Gets Things SO Wrong During Tornado Threat Students Seriously Endangered

This photo posted to social media last week appears to
show students evacuated to a large free standing room
in a Florida school during a tornado warning. This type
of room is the most dangerous if a tornado hit. The students 
should have been in smaller, windowless interior rooms.

Did a Florida school put a bunch of students in danger last week during a tornado warning?

Judging from some posts on social media, they might have. 

 I do have to a disclaimer, because, Duh! not everything you read in social media is true.  

Not all the facts are in, and I haven't yet seen a response from the school in question. And I don't have it all confirmed through a reliable new source.  But the person who posted the info at least seems at least somewhat credible. 

Given what I saw on X, formerly Twitter the other day, if true, this school put students in the worst possible,  most dangerous place in the school during the tornado warning. And they should have known better. 

Twisters swept through parts of Florida lastWednesday night and Thursday, causing damage from Clearwater on the state's west coast to north of Daytona Beach on the east coast.

The National Weather Service issued numerous tornado warnings, including one for a location north of Tampa.  One student at a high school that was under the tornado warning, showed students evacuated to what appears to be a gymnasium or large common room, facing the walls as a "safety" evacuation.

The student, a weather enthusiast who goes by JakeWx said he knows - like most people in tornado prone areas - that a gymnasium or similar big, open room is the worst place in a school to shelter in a tornado. 

In its tornado safety outline for schools, NOAA has this to say:

DANGER - GYMS and AUDITORIUMS: Large, open-span areas, such as gymnasiums, auditoriums and most lunchrooms can be very dangerous even in weak tornadoes, and should not be used for sheltering people. This sort of room has inherent structural weaknesses and lack of roof support, making them especially prone to collapse with weaker wind loading that more compact areas of the same school building."

NOAA says there's no one size fits all tornado safety protocol for schools, but students in general should be rushed to ground floor or basement rooms away from windows and exterior walls. Interior rest rooms are often good places to shelter. That's what JakeWx thought when his school was under a tornado warning.

"When I tried to go to a bathroom and bring other people with me, they threatened to give me a referral. Not safe at all to be in that spot, if that tornado hit us directly, we would all be dead and it would be the school's fault," JakeWx wrote on X.

Hmm. Getting detention for doing a smart thing. How Florida! 

Snark aside, if indeed this school directed kids into that big room during a tornado warning, I hope this school revisits its severe weather protocol. True, I don't know the structural integrity of the room they were in. Many Florida schools act as hurricane shelters, so the room might have been reinforced. But I still strongly doubt it was the safest place in the school. 

JackWx didn't specify which school he was in. Only that it was north of Tampa. 

El Nino is going to be going strong this winter.  That tends to increase the odds of strong storm systems in the South that can spin off tornado outbreaks. 

Severe weather safety in homes, workplaces and schools has thankfully been getting more attention. Sometimes it takes a tragedy to force this.

In December, 2021, a tornado outbreak caused widespread destruction and deaths. Those deaths included workers at a candle factory in Mayfield, Kentucky that was leveled by a tornado. Also, six people died when a tornado struck an Amazon warehouse in Illinois.

In both instances, questions were raised about worker tornado safety.  Should Mayfield employees been allowed to leave the plant for safer shelter elsewhere in town?  And did Amazon allow workers there to flee to reinforced rooms inside the sprawling warehouse to make themselves safer?

Let's just say lawsuits are ongoing in the Mayfield incident and in the Illinois Amazon deaths. 

Many schools in tornado and storm prone areas have excellent safety plans for severe weather. But not all of them. In the Florida case last week, the tornado either missed the school or lifted before it got there. No damage or injuries were reported at the school.

However, perhaps schools nationwide should review their plans to make sure they are safer than what appeared to happen last week in Florida. Either that,