15 ways to prepare for severe weather as massive storm bears down on one-third of US

There are millions of Americans in the path of a potentially dangerous storm system on Monday, the Weather Channel reports.

There are already about half a million customers across the central U.S. without power Monday morning after storms moved through east of the Mississippi River overnight.

Tornadoes are also touching down Monday in Georgia. In North Carolina, Virginia, and Washington D.C., there is a chance of hurricane-force winds. That's going to mean a high likelihood of falling trees and downed power lines.

One of the best explanations of the differences between a tornado watch and a tornado warning follows the taco rule. A tornado watch is when you have all of the things to make a taco, and they're ready to go. A tornado warning is when there is a taco. The warning means that either a tornado is on the ground or there is a funnel cloud that is turning above you and could drop down at any minute.

For those who aren’t accustomed to having to dodge funnels, here are some tips:

1. Have the weather on the TV or streaming all day. Make sure the emergency alerts are set up on your phone. Some folks turn these off.
2. Keep your shoes on today. If a storm hits, you don't want to be shoe-less afterward because there will be all sorts of debris and glass on the ground.
3. Have a safe spot picked out. It should be the lowest level of your home and the center part of your house. You want as many walls between you and the outside as you can if you can’t get below ground. No windows. Not a lot of glass. Usually, this is a bathroom, even if you have a large mirror or a glass shower door.
4. Get in the bathtub
5. Children who might be home alone after school should not to put water in the bathtub.
6. Have pillows and blankets over you to protect from any flying debris. If you’re in a bathroom with glass, grab more pillows and blankets. Bicycle and motorcycle helmets are great protection, too.
7. Gather important documents, medication and electronic charges in a backpack to keep in your safe spot. Make sure your phones are charged. Put the backpack on when you start sheltering.
8. Think about things you can grab that will keep kids calm, like books to read, music to listen to.
9. Keep your animals leashed and harnessed while you’re sheltering. It means you can loop the leash on your leg or arm while you’re holding onto them and the family. If a tornado rips your roof off, your furry friend could get torn out of your arms. Having the leash attached to you means you've got a little extra protection.
10. Do not stay watching the weather on TV if you need to shelter. Take shelter and turn up the sound up as much as you can so you can hear it from the shelter. Your safety is more important than knowing exactly which neighborhood will be hit and when.
11. Check the weather before leaving the house. If you can avoid leaving the house Monday, do it. If you need to run errands, wait until everything has passed. Even if no tornadoes are expected to hit your area, if winds are strong, you could end up on a road when a tree falls on your car. Someone on the George Washington Parkway died in Northern Virginia last week when a tree fell on them during a storm.
12. If you've got school pickup Monday afternoon, keep an eye on the storm's timing. Several of the storm's bad parts north of South Carolina are scheduled to hit between 2 p.m. EDT and 5 p.m. EDT. This might mean you should leave work early or late. It might mean going to pick up the kids, parking, and staying at the school for half an hour just to be safe. School bathrooms are great places to shelter because they're often interior rooms and surrounded by cinderblocks. Stay up against the wall, cross your legs, bend down, and put your hands over your head if you don't have a helmet. Use any extra clothing you have to wrap over your head, hands, and around you.
13. Other great places to shelter if you can't get home include basements or central staircases. Parking garage staircases on the bottom floor are good spots. If you're in a public place like a big-box store, staff should know where to tell you to go. Convenience stores sometimes have large freezers that have been known to protect people. So if it is between your car and the convenience store, go inside. Get far away from windows.
14. If you're staying at home and you have a large tree in your yard, think about where that tree will fall if it comes down. Will it fall on the house right where you sit on the sofa? Will it fall right on your bedroom? Don't sit there.
15. Have a phone buddy, particularly if you're alone. Make sure your parents/siblings/kids all know that you’ll call them when you’re safe. That way, they know if you don’t call, that it's because you need help. They can contact your city's first responders with your address.

Do not get out of your car and climb under an underpass. The videos that show people doing that were only slightly swiped by the tornado. If one comes over you while you're under the underpass, it will make the wind worse. You can either get sucked out, or debris will be sent flying at you at hundreds of miles an hour. In the EF5 tornado in Joplin, Missouri, in 2011, a piece of wood pierced a concrete curb.

Don't waste time opening your windows. The damage from storms doesn't come from the plummeting pressure exploding your house; it comes from wind and debris. You're wasting time taking shelter when you're running around the house opening windows.