Preparing for a storm

LITTLE ROCK, AR - Whether you live in a house or a mobile home park, emergency crews always say having a plan can save your life.

But what plan is best, what should you do to keep your family safe during a storm?

Weather experts say take shelter during a storm, but what if the one place where the roof over your head is the most unsafe place to be during severe weather? Where do you go, what do you do, and when do you make that call to get out in time?

The Riley's moved into Hurricane Lake Mobile Home Park about a year ago, and they know about the severe weather what happened in April of 2008 could happen again. Several mobile homes were destroyed.

Richard Riley says that's why he is looking now for some place else to live. "Mobile homes are no way safe."

The Riley's don't have a weather radio, and their satellite TV tends to go out when heavy rains come, so they do their best to stay informed. "We're trying to prepare what we're going to do and how we're going to do it."

Riley and his wife Jennifer say they take severe weather seriously, and stay with friends or family members with storm shelters or basements, because they know it's possible something bad could happen.

"I never doubt where it could happen. It pops up everywhere in Arkansas."

Jennifer says it's scary to think about the damage the weather could do, and it doesn't take much to cause major devastation in a mobile home park.

"If we have a warning in a 5-10 mile radius we're gone. We don't waste time. I don't want to get caught in the storm."

She says all it takes is one second. "You never know who's going to get the brunt of the storm, and it can happen to anyone of us."

There is a siren in the Hurricane Lake Mobile Home Park, but the Riley's say when it sounds, sometimes you only have minutes, and that might not be enough time to get in the car and go.