Severe Weather Alert

As I normally do when I arrive at the office, I turned on the lights, fired up the computer and started retrieving voicemail messages. Once all of that is completed, I usually turn to a country music radio station in Nashville through the magic of the internets.

Today the radio announcers began warning everyone that they should prepare for terrible, terrible storms that are moving east, and scheduled to arrive in the greater middle Tennessee area around 3pm.

Then the strangest thing began to happen. Schools began announcing that they are closing early so the students can get home before the severe weather strikes.

This is not an attempt to be flippant or funny or ugly. But I spoke with a friend in Nashville who wondered aloud whether sending kids home from school is the wisest thing to do. After all, many of these kids will be leaving a strong, reinforced brick or concrete building just to go home to a trailer. And, seriously, trailers are quite common in middle Tennessee and are often starter homes for new families. Those families likely to have kids in school. (One of the largest manufactured home companies has factories in Sumner County, TN, just one county north of Nashville Metro.)

And while many people believe that trailers are "tornado magnets," the truth is that they are just more susceptible to "tornadic" winds that may pass only nearby, and not receive the direct hit of a tornado.

If I were a parent who lived in a trailer, I think I would tell my kid to hide in the gymnasium until everyone was gone. It would have to be safer.