Tornado Season

I fibbed.  The bike post will wait.  The tornado is the one weather event that is as fascinating as is it frightening.  Last week we had another example of a heavily populated city taking a direct hit from the most powerful of storms.  I didn't make mention of it on here for little more of a reason than if I posted about every event I would probably have to quit my job and many other hobbies.  However, here I am.

The tornado in my mind is near or at the top in horrifying meteorological events.  They are completely unpredictable, extremely violent and in simple terms, don't give a shit.  They form when they want to, where they want to and move wherever they desire.  Oh yeah, and it happens in the matter of moments.  That's the scary part.  A sunny spring day can turn into a nightmare in a few minutes.  No place on earth deals with these as much as the United States and especially the central part of the country.

This past week Moore, Oklahoma was added to list of places to get hit by an EF5 tornado.  Since the new scale was established in 2007, this has been the ninth according to the weather service.  It was a list Moore didn't want to be on but have found themselves too often.  They already were on the list for an F4 and F5 tornado all since 1999.  The first thing that came to mind when I returned home and saw the news of the event was this was like Joplin all over again.

It was oh so very clear.  The news crews standing on piles of ruble.  The interviews with people who had lost everything hours after waking up on a warm Monday morning.  The inaccuracy of the reporting.  The we've-been-here-for-hours and are starting to run out of useful information.  We've seen it before and will see it again.  Maybe it is the nature of the people in the mid-west and south but if I had experienced loss of that magnitude and came back to find cameras and media all over the place or standing on whatever was left of my house I wouldn't be too friendly.  And maybe part of it is understanding that this is how life is in that part of the world.  Nothing echoed that more than the older lady standing on the remnants of her home being interviewed by whoever and realizing her dog was probably gone only to have somebody point out the dog struggling to free itself from the ruble a couple seconds later.  A great moment captured for all to see.

What we won't see is how the rest of the story plays out.  The media leaves and unless you live close by or make an attempt, the story ends here.  I said the same thing about Joplin after that city was destroyed and many lives lost.  I still follow the rebuilding of Joplin.  That tornado was two years ago.  In fact there was a short picture slideshow with images of various places around the city from the time of the tornado to today.  The time it takes to rebuild is amazing.  The nice thing about today with social media is that anybody who has an interest in helping or donating in anyway is easily able to do so.  That part of the story can't be overlooked either.

I don't want to diminish other natural events.  It's just that tornadoes bring a different dimension of destruction and loss.  Tropical storms move slowly, carving out a path before making or sometimes not making landfall.  People get enough advanced warning to stock up on items, board up and fly or drive somewhere else if they desire.  Plus, if you don't live along or near a coast susceptible to this particular event, you don't have to worry.  Flooding has long been particularly deadly.  There is though an inherent risk when living near water and that is risk number one.  A little common sense can go a long way in flood situations.  Outside of those two events, I'm not sure what else in terms of weather would be high on the list.  Maybe blizzards or heat waves which again fail in comparison.

People can argue that by living in tornado alley, many people are putting themselves at risk.  It is a risk but so is getting in your car in the morning.  Living next to a river or along the Atlantic is a pretty specific choice.  Living in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas or the other dozens of states that are prone is basic life.  Tornadoes can happen almost anywhere.  There have been 20 states since 1950 that were hit by an F5 tornado.  Ohio has been hit four times.  Guess who else is on the list.  Pennsylvania.  I don't know if Pennsylvania will ever see it happen again, Ohio probably will.  But what will happen is there will be a tornado this year somewhere in this general vicinity.  Where it will be, who knows?

And that's what makes tornadoes so insane.  You wake up one morning and go to work only to come back and find your neighborhood is gone.  So is everything you owned.  Your family had a few minutes to grab what they could which was likely nothing more than themselves and maybe a pet.  Then you need to find shelter and hope for the best.  This type of event could happen at any time or any day for a lot of people.  Very scary proposition.

I'll leave you with this video.  From a video recording device, in a car, hundreds of yards away, the sound of this thing gave me goosebumps.