It encouraged all, including the media and amateurs, to chase safely to avoid a repeat of Friday's deaths. With the regulation that you are proposing, what would you suggest to someone who doesn't have the tools or money to contribute their chasing to science, but simply would like to witness the beauty of mother nature, and is educated enough on storms to make smart decisions to not pose a danger to others? The comments below have not been moderated. So in a free country, it is possible to do as you suggest. When told to seek shelter, many ventured out and snarled traffic across the metro area - perhaps remembering the damage from May 20. These things will always be unpredicable and its good to hid under the basement steps! Sher told ABC News: 'When the troopers found them, they were both deceased.'. Okay, fair enough. I agree, we only need laws if we need laws. Nooooooooooo!!! It seems to me that we should be collecting equivalent data from storms that do and storms that do not drop tornadoes, because, after all, one of the things we want to know more about is the difference between those two types of storms. Injuries that were INCOMPATIBLE WITH LIFE. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous. It is probably true that Samaras abandoned attempts at dropping probes more often then strictly necessary, cautiously avoiding rain-wrapped tornadoes where they would not have been able to see where the tornado was, in order to be extra safe. The one thing in your article I see that you failed to address is the number of chasers in the past that have been killed by the storm while chasing them. After a large and violent tornado went through Moore Oklahoma a few days ago, several people in various media outlets including CNN mentioned that given the (seemingly enigmatic) lack of good shelter in homes and public buildings in Oklahoma, that a good option to protect yourself in case a tornado comes your way is to drive away. Anyone can be wrong and that includes forcasters on tv, government and business emergency policies. NBC News reported that the passengers were herded to the basement and told to put their hands on their heads as they waited out the storm. Actually, to get my point all you really have to do is read the post but to restate the idea: Jamming a county road or a state or federal highway during an emergency is a public danger. Like diving into the bath tub with a mattress on top for cover. Perhaps, the day before tornado-warned storms are expected, you could fly to France, but that is not really an option for most people. I can only assume that Tim Samaras had no intention of being in the path of the the tornado that killed him, his son, and his colleague, but was unable to get out of the way because of the traffic jam. The authors are Joshua Wurman, Karen Kosiba and Paul Robinson with the Center for Severe Weather Research, and Timothy Marshall of Haag Engineering, a damage-path surveyor from Flower Mound whom I interviewed for our cover story on the tornado. Rather than wishing for the cops to block storm chasers from going to work or giving untrained hayseed sheriffs deputies the responsibility of predicting tornado behavior and rerouting traffic accordingly, maybe instead of getting stuck in traffic the next time an F5 rolls through town how's about using that time digging a nice cozy little family sized hole in their back yard and stocking it with a weather radio and a couple of 12 packs of whatever passes for beer in Oklahoma. But please, do we need new laws? A Carrollton High School Claims Employee Gave Student Prescription Drugs, Rep. Nate Schatzline, Under Fire for 'Drag' Video, Accused of 'Doxxing' Keller ISD Mom, Another Carrollton Fentanyl Arrest and an On-Campus Overdose at R.L. Of the 60 EF5 tornadoes to hit since 1950, Oklahoma and Alabama have been hit the most - seven times each. That's what they're made for,' long-time storm chaser, David Hoadley, of Falls Church, told The Washington Post. Tens of thousands were without power, and only eight minor injuries were reported. However the generic advice makes a lot of sense. I would say to such folks the same thing a fire chief would say to people who are not trained, qualified, or equipped to study burning office buildings but feel that somehow being close to one would help them provide insights about fire safety: "Move along, you're not helping but just getting in the way here. If you watch the Discovery Channels Storm Chasers show, you will notice that as the seasons progress the professional storm chasers encounter more and more traffic as they try to move to the predicted path of oncoming tornadoes to drop data collecting probes or carry out direct intercepts (where the specially modified vehicles equipped with data collection devices are directly hit with a tornado). More than 210,000 customers lost electricity in the areas affected by the storm. They were caught off guard not by traffic, but by an extremely powerful and erratic multi vortex tornado that grew from a mile wide multivortex into a 2.5 miles in diameter behemoth as it also accelerated and turned north toward the ill fated chasers. Heres why each season begins twice. We all see our own causes as noble don't we? I know this from my own children being in Norman public schools. Tim Samaras of Storm Chasers 5 7 (1.70 m) Born November 12, 1957 Lakewood, Colorado, USA Died May 31, 2013 El Reno, Oklahoma, USA (tornado) Spouse Kathy Samaras? Smith said the storms 2.6-mile path besting a record set in 2004 in Hallam, Neb. That's why safety experts say you need a plan. Many still believe mountains and rivers save towns. In his twenties, he began to chase tornadoes for the science and humanity's safety every spring all over the United States until his tragic death. You have to sensor the state. Also we MUST push for adqueate shelters. I know cyclones are slightly more predictable than tornados (but much less predictable than hurricanes) they also have the habit of suddenly randomly changing direction. According to Mr West, their vehicle looked ' like it had gone through a trash compactor' when it was found. The Weather Channel's severe weather expert, Dr. Greg Forbes, knew Tim personally. What is it that causes some people to react to every tragedy in life by trying to legislate the risk out of living in a free country? Tim shared data and results. I hold a degree in atmospheric and oceanic sciences. 1:50PM. It is fairly safe to say, that Mr. Samaras, his son, and Mr. Carl Young, sustained injuries when the sub-vortex of the El Reno storm directly impacted their vehicle on Reuters Road, west of the intersection with Radio Road. 528 people were killed by weather in 2012, of which about 200 were a result of high velocity air. Common sense will tell you to collect the data that meteorologist have had for years about how tornado's form and come up with an idea that makes these conditions less favorable maybe even do tests on a smaller scale. "He was a groundbreaker in terms of the kind of research he was doing on severe thunderstorms and tornadoes," Dr. Forbes said on The Weather Channel Sunday morning. I also agree that people should not be allowed to drive through tornadoes for the safety of others, however if people were not allowed to escape I believe that more shelters should be provided for individuals in the path of the storm. 'They were screaming, "We're going to die, we're going to die,"' she recalled to USA Today. Three veteran storm chasers were among the 10 people killed, Dallas Area Storms Cause Power Transformer To Explode. He said "you need to be below ground [pause] if you can drive south bla bla bla", Does this mean "you need to be below ground, but if you are in you car in the path of the tornado you can drive south", Or does this mean "you need to be below ground or if you can drive south, go and drive south". But a law or explicit regulation, or even a well publicized set of best practices in the interest of public safety, might make the point that needs to be made, thus discouraging people from making decisions that endanger others. Though the tornado alert expired, the powerful rain continued to hit the area and floodwaters were collecting in the streets. Most tornadoes in the United States are relatively small. We need infrastructure built! Three veteran storm chasers were among the 10 people killed following Friday's EF3 tornado in El Reno, Okla. (KFOR TV). Emergency officials reported that numerous injuries occurred in the area along I-40, and said the storm's victims were mostly in cars. A National Geographic team has made the first ascent of the remote Mount Michael, looking for a lava lake in the volcanos crater. 'For reasons that are not clear to me, more people took to the roads, more than we expected. I have lived in the Oklahoma City area for 37 years and have been professionally chasing storms for the last 18 years. 'We're never going to know, because they're not here to tell us,' Mr West told The Post. (Football, Lacross, Motorcycle, Bicycle etc). In a separate incident, Brandon Sullivan and Brett Wright captured heart stopping footage of their exploits getting too close to the powerful twister near Union City, in southwest Oklahoma City. 'The car was probably about 60 to 70 per cent of its normal size because it had been pushed and mauled and compacted as it was tumbling down the road. The KFOR anchor should have said "if you are in your vehicle (head south). Do not rely on others, including the T.V. She quickly regretted it. - May 31, 2013 (his death) Other works book: "Tornado Hunter: Getting Inside the Most Violent Storms on Earth". Storm chasers with cameras in their car transmitted video showing a number of funnels dropping from the supercell thunderstorm as it passed south of El Reno and toward downtown Oklahoma City. If it was two more miles this way, it would have wiped out all of downtown, almost every one of our subdivisions and almost all of our businesses, White said. Probably not. Are they going to fire that weather reporter who told listeners to drive into the tornado? Tim Samarass strategy was never to get into the direct path of a tornado. Was El Reno a giant tornado populated with powerful subvortices? independent local journalism in Dallas. Then we have police in the mix attempting somehow to cite the stupid? Though the state's transportation authorities strongly advised citizens not to drive, some interstate highways in Oklahoma were jammed with stalled traffic, as heavy rains drenched roadways and flooded low-lying areas. Winds swept one vehicle with a crew from The Weather Channel off the road, tossed it 200 yards and flipped it into a field -- they escaped major injury. I did not make the argument that storm chasers cause cars to fly through the air and hurt people (though that could happen) I made the argument that amateurs who are just out to see the tornado jam traffic this is not something I've discovered, it is something that professional storm chasers have claimed to be true. I dont think they realize how lucky El Reno was.. Until I see good evidence to the contrary, I will be strongly against regulations on this activity. What this weather forecaster just did was to advice a couple/few tens of thousands of people in the path of a tornado to get in their cars and drive in the same direction. The season usually starts in March and then ramps up for the next couple of months. Academic Postmortem of Tornado that Killed Tim Samaras Is Chilling Brantley Hargrove October 1, 2013 1:50PM The American Meteorological Society has released a preliminary version of its. The other, which according to professional storm chasers is a problem, is the increased number of people crowding roads (including but by no means limited to) highways in or near the paths of storms. Even with interstate highways out of town in six different directions, you wouldn't be able to evacuate all those people in a few hours. I'll take my chances sheltering in place, thank you. They eventually revised this policy I'm assuming based on what has happened to folks in their stores during a bad storm. When the storm passed between El Reno and Yukon, it barreled right down Interstate 40 for more than two miles, ripping billboards down to twisted metal frames. I havent seen any good arguments yet that storm chasers and others on the road during a tornado are posing a danger to anyone but themselves. And we cannot "go to the sun" or other planets where it's abundant and "scoop it up and bring it back to earth". 'My car was actually lifted off the road and then set back down,' Ms Black said. Because of your action, your car has become a very large and dangerous projectile. More than half of those were people who had been cut or pierced. Personally it does anger me when you see chasers, pro or amateur, driving past people who may be potentially injured and most certainly in need just to keep getting the shot. The amateur storm chaser who was killed mentioned, in the cell phone conversation he was having with a friend (who was in a safe location and urged the storm chaser to get out of there), two local TV news vans passing him. Contributions are fully tax-deductible. Also dead were Tim's son, Paul, and Carl . How did this mountain lion reach an uninhabited island? I can at least understand why news crews were in the vicinity, but they didn't really need to be there either. All rights reserved. Take multiple pictures of vehicles "in the way" of emergency responders at tornado or other emergency sites. Trump is trying to appoint him to be assistant administrator for air and radiation. It still came down to the fact that you have to do what you feel is right (especially if it conflicts with what you are being told to do) and not just become a helpless lemming during an emergency. The majority of schools are built from concrete blocks that are not reinforced. 'If you live in downtown Oklahoma City, please go below ground. The deaths of Mr. Samaras, his son, and Mr. Young had absolutely nothing to do with the horrendous traffic affecting other parts of Oklahoma on May 31. I doubt that the new law would save lives. They went in the field focused on collecting data to enable meteorologists to further the science behind tornadoes which we know has and will help to save countless lives. Numerous vehicles were damaged in the storm and that many motorists were left stranded. At the time that Samaras, his son, and his colleague, were crushed to death inside their tornado-chasing car, which was apparently rolled by the force of 200-300 mile an hour winds over a distance of a half mile or so, it was said by numerous news sources that this car had been trapped by a traffic jam caused by looky-loos who wanted to see the tornado and/or people sent out on the roads by a local weather reporter to "escape." If you must call out Mike Morgan, then you must also call out Marc Dillard and Reed Timmer from KFOR for also suggesting people drive south. I could not agree more with the statement in this article saying that driving away is not the best option. This advice sounds reasonable, but it really isnt. That's two more vehicles going into the danger zone. The Weather Channel issued the following statement: It was with great sadness that The Weather Channel learned of the passing of Tim and Paul Samaras and Carl Young as a result of the El Reno Tornado. On her way home after the worst had passed 'the roads were like rivers,' she said. Samaras was killed along with his son Paul and storm chaser Carl Young in Friday's tornado. And now Storm chasing by amateurs needs to be outlawed. People found driving on closed roads are fined over $1000.00 per wheel. I was in the northern part of the metro and we were nervous because most tornadoes through here track NE eventually.