While these dugouts are usually effective, they are not always so.

There have been instances where families having only time to descend and not time enough to close the trap door have been exposed to the storm's full fury by the tornado getting into the opening and lifting off the whole roof after having first swept away the house above.

Another pathetic case resulted in the death of a whole family by an extraordinary freak of the tornado.
The storm first struck a large pond and swept up all the water in it.
Its next plunge deposited this water on one of these dugouts, and the family were drowned like chipmunks in a hole.
Some of the western tornadoes are accompanied by electrical manifestations to an extent that has originated a belief in electricity as their cause.

These disturbances are very marked in some cases, while in others they have not been noticed.

In one tornado in Central Illinois electricity played very peculiar antics not only in the tornado's track, but also at some distance from it.