very few houses in joplin, particularly in the path of what turned out to be this tornado, had basements. so the best place to go is either a closet or in your bathtub. harold brooks: you wanna get as low as you can and put as many walls between you and the tornado as possible. storm chaser: oh gosh. i was concerned when she said the sirens were going off. i wouldn't even have imagined the magnitude of what was gonna come. jim riek: amber munson, probably 15 seconds before the tornado hit, realized just how bad it was going to be. and bang. the tornado hit. for tornadoes to form, you have to have