Path of the May 16th, 2025 tornado, courtesy NWS St. Louis
Numerous drivers in the St. Louis region caught in Friday’s tornado parked underneath overpasses along one of the area’s interstate highways. Marshall Pfahler, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in St. Louis, said doing so can create traffic jams during a severe storm.
“It’s definitely not a great place to be, and you should never, you know, sacrifice your safety and others’ safety by parking where you’re blocking the roadway or anything like that,” he told Missourinet. “You’re preventing other people from being able to find a way to seek shelter.”
Safety experts also warn against parking underneath overpasses. Tornadoes can turn them into wind tunnels, accelerating wind speeds and blowing debris through them at high rates of speed. But staying in your vehicle during a tornado is also dangerous.
“The recommended thing is to pull off the road,” Pfahler said. “Basically, you want to avoid areas with many trees or any kind of area where you might have sources of debris and get into any spot that puts you kind of below the ground or below where debris can fly.”
Drivers are also warned to not try and outrun a tornado, as they can accelerate and change directions at a moment’s notice.
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