Get informed.

Go to the website Ready.gov.

Read the tornado safety information carefully (have your parents read it, too!).

You will learn everything you need to know there, but here are some especially important tips:

• Be aware of the weather, especially if you live in a tornado-prone area and during the spring and summer, when most tornadoes strike.

• If the weather looks stormy, look and listen for weather alerts on TV, a reliable weather website, or a local radio station.

• Take tornado watches and warnings seriously. If you are urged to take shelter, do it immediately.

• Go inside if there is danger of a tornado (there is really no safe place outdoors in a tornado).

• Stay away from windows and do not open them.

• The safest place in a building is a basement. If there is no basement, take shelter in an interior room on the building’s lowest level, away from corners, windows, doors, and outside walls. Try to get under a very heavy table or desk. Cover your head with your hands to protect yourself from flying debris.

• Cars and trucks are not ever safe in a tornado. But if you are caught (as Dex was), buckle your seat belt and cover your head with your hands.

• If you are taking shelter at home, put on a bike or ski helmet. This might sound silly, but storm chasers wear them when there is danger of flying debris.