Be prepared for an overnight storm

By Charles Bassett, NEWS 9

The most frightening part of a storm can be the time in which it takes place. In the middle of the night, when many have gone to bed, is a potentially dangerous time for a storm to pop up. There are some ways, however, to protect you from severe weather that hits overnight.

People in this Edmond never dreamed they'd be running for their lives in the middle of the night.
With such little time to prepare, one family said next time, they'll be better prepared.

It was a night the Lyles' family won't soon forget.

"It just sounded like a bunch of trains coming all at once," Jeff Lyles said. "We heard some glass breaking, lots of noise, but it was pretty crazy."

The family was watching weather reports as they quickly got dressed and made their way to this small bathroom in the center of the house.

"It's just strange, especially since it happened at night," Andrea Lyles said

It was strange because they couldn't see what was happening. NEWS 9 Chief Meteorologist Gary England explains danger of nighttime tornadoes.

"The primary reason is that they are so difficult to see," England said. "We can look on radars, but radars are not perfect. Daytime storms, you can look at the radar, you can look out the doors to see what's going on. Nighttime, you can look at the radar and you think you know what's going on, but you can't see the actual tornado until it's on top of you."

This family did the right thing, by talking shelter and paying attention to the weather. Gary says you should never venture outside at night looking for shelter; it could be deadly.
Also, get yourself a weather radio, which are selling fast.

"We had a spike last night," Eric Frikken with Wal-Mart Electronics said. "We had a lot of people coming in overnight, even in the middle of the night, asking for weather radios."

That's the one thing the Lyles family didn't have.

"I'm going to go probably today to go buy a weather radio," Andrea said.

A weather radio costs about $30. It's a small price to pay to protect you and your family.

NEWS 9 has teamed up with several metro Wal-Mart stores and weather radios will be on sale Saturday for $25. Someone will be on hand to program them upon purchase.

Participating Wal-Mart locations