TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) – As each day brings the United States closer to peak severe weather season, Tornado Alley residents are facing a difficult question: Is it better to take on a twister outside a community shelter or to face the possibility of contracting the new coronavirus inside one?
So far, sheltering from deadly weather appears to be taking precedent over staying away from a potentially deadly disease, but not for everyone.
In north Alabama, where powerful tornadoes killed dozens in recent years, a little more than 700 people showed up at three shelters – a turnout that was actually larger than usual, due to especially dire storm predictions – when potentially dangerous weather threatened the Tennessee Valley in late March.
Two of the shelters were located in schools, where workers urged people to stay 6 feet (2 meters) apart in accordance with pandemic rules about social distancing, said Decatur Police Chief Nate Allen. They also asked whether anyone felt ill, and people who said they did were directed to an isolation room near an exterior door.
“They were pretty honest about it,” Allen said. One elderly couple who were concerned about both disease and twisters locked themselves in a teachers lounge, he said.