Tornado victim needs to act before hill rears up - extremely hairy (7)
I believe the answer is:
dorothy
'tornado victim' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'to act before hill rears up extremely hairy' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'act' could be 'do' (to do is to act or execute a task) and 'do' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'needs' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dorothy that I've seen before include "Name of the young heroine in 'The Wizard of Oz'" , "Female" , "one of 5d's troupe" , "'Wizard of Oz' girl" , "Girl from Kansas" .)