Tornado disaster in Joplin, Missouri

[Brolan]

I was looking for info on the tornado strike here in the Minneapolis metro area and came across news reports on Joplin. It sounds like at least 24 were killed. A major hospital was hit with four dead there and reports the hospital is being evacuated.

They are asking for any medical professionals to come and help. The National Guard has been called up. I hope all the Trek BBS folks in the Joplin area are ok.

 

[Davros]

This has been a hell of a year of tornadoes so far. I hope everybody here is safe out there.

 

[Kira's Mom]

The death toll is now 89 and expected to rise. It's the deadliest single tornado in Missouri history.

 

[Davros]

At least with these kinds of disasters you don't hear from Pat Robertson or others of his ilk, saying the people's sinful ways brought down God's wrath.

 

[{ Emilia }]

At least with these kinds of disasters you don't hear from Pat Robertson or others of his ilk, saying the people's sinful ways brought down God's wrath.

Somebody should ask him about it. Seriously.

 

[scottydog]

The video of the disaster is just heart-breaking to watch. It seriously looks like the crystalline entity visited earth.

 

[marillion]

Horrible news... Sadly, the La Nina-enduced weather will continue. New Mexico and West Texas are just starting to get into our stormy season, and historically speaking, when we've had a La Nina year, the spread of severe weather, including flash floods and tornados in New Mexico tends to be wider across the state.

Hopefully will know more today on a conference call with the NWS..

Hearts and thoughts going out to the folks there and and MN...

 

[RJDiogenes]

Great. Another disaster. 116 people have been confirmed killed so far.

 

[scottydog]

What's amazing to me is that with all our modern technology, we can't warn people soon enough to allow them time to seek safe shelter.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Well, it's better than it used to be, anyway, but tornadoes form very quickly. What we really need is safer shelter, or some way to actually evaporate the tornadoes before they kill anyone. That's a long way off, though.

 

[marillion]

The ability to create practically impregnible shelter exists.. And it's expensive as hell..

So I'm just back from my weather briefing with the NWS.. Before getting into our local weather issues as far as fire, we talked about the recent outbreak of tornados. Counting yesterday's event in Joplin (with the understanding that the death toll will rise) in 2011, 455 people have died from tornados. This is the highest total number of deaths for a year since 1953 when 519 were killed... The highest total in history was 1925, when 794 were killed.

Incidently, the largest number of deaths from a single torado also occurred in 1953, but I forgot to jot down the number.

By all accounts, Joplin residents had about 20 minutes warning, which, even with today's modern technology, is a pretty long time. Fact is, weather forecasters knew and broadcast that conditions were favorable for tornadic activity that day.

 

[Kirby]

That is just awful. My thoughts and prayers are with all of those families devistated by those tornados.
Per marillion's comment about 20 minutes warning, people need to take this stuff seriously.

 

[ThankQ]

It's not just an issue of warning. Have you seen the pics/vids of entire neighborhoods destroyed? It doesn't matter if you're in the middle room bathtub with a mattress over you if your entire house is destroyed to the foundation. You, your bathtub and mattress are swept along w/everything else.

If a mile-wide tornado tears a path through midtown Tulsa, ThankQ will be no more. It's as simple as that. With 20 minutes warning, I could make it to the nearest shelter. But I won't. Because they'd turn me away w/my dog, and I wouldn't go w/out him. Stupid as it may sound to many of you, he's my child, so we'll be hunkered down in the same closet. With a gun to each of our heads would I choose his life over mine? No. But it is not in me to flat out abandon him in a crisis. If we go, we go together, wherever that going may take us. I live just off the Arkansas river. No one has an underground shelter. You can't; at least not w/out $1.7M. I have $.0000002M.

I lived in Florida in the year of 5 hurricanes (I think it was 2003 or 2004). I rode out Charlie, ran from two others (went to Georgia for the south one, Miami for the north one), and the other two weren't a threat to Daytona. We had DAYS warning. A tornado does not work that way.

In Oklahoma, if you ran for cover every time you saw a badass cloud, you'd have no life anyway.

 

[Kirby]

^^ Fair point Q, as I haven't been in either a hurricane or tornado, but I have been desensitized to the warning sirens since the test them every Wednesday at noon in Denver. Although if I knew one was coming, I would ride it out in my basement. Even if the house collapses on me, at least I'd go out knowing that I tried...

I totally understand about the dog. I have a wife, kids, and a dog, and have a hard time even considering leaving the dog behind. If I had to choose between my dog or my wife and kids, the wife and kids win out. However, if it was just me and the dog I wouldn't abandon him. Ever.

 

[Dorian Thompson]

A shelter would turn you away????? What do they expect people to do who come running up during a storm with a dog in tow? Leave them outside while they go in??? That's contemptible. I'd sooner try to outrun it in my car with my Hannah dog.

 

[ThankQ]

A shelter would turn you away????? What do they expect people to do who come running up during a storm with a dog in tow? Leave them outside while they go in??? That's contemptible. I'd sooner try to outrun it in my car with my Hannah dog.

Yes. They would let me in if I cut the dog loose. Now Trip (my dog) would wait outside by the door of whatever building I'm in... until he was swept away.

Why is this? The same thing that ruins most of life. People with children. "YOUR DOG COULD BITE MY CHILD!" "Your dog would mess on the floor and my child could get sick".

The only way my dog would bite a child is if the child yanked on his ears or tail. But most modern parents would blame MY DOG when they let their kid run wild to yank his ears. And as for the messing on the floor bit, I am far more likely to get sick from YOUR CHILD than your child is likely to get sick from my dog.

But this is the USA. This is the bible belt. Children are the only things that matter. Everyone else can suck it and die.

Okla News: "19 people died in a fire today, including 7 children". Really? 7 children? How many elderly? How many blondes? Why are children so special? Are they worth more?

Sorry if I sound bitter, but I am. YOUR child is more special to you than anyone else, I'll buy that. But they are not more important to society. In fact, they are less important. Let's take it to the extreme. All of humanity is going to die except 1000 people. Every parent would want their 3 year old to be one of the 1000, but if there were 1000 3 year olds left, they'd all die shortly after anyway. God strike me dead for smoking on a airplane, but your child can scream and scream and scream all the way from Kennedy to LAX. The most hated crime today isn't murder, it's pedophilia. So much to the point that there are people who have had to register as sex offenders for pissing behind a bar at 3:00 AM. Exactly how many children are endangered from a guy pissing on a dumpster at 3:00 AM? How many? The world stops for an Amber Alert, but if a regular citizen adult goes missing, it doesn't make the 10:00 PM news.

 

[marillion]

^^ I think your blanket needs to be cast a bit wider... My opinion is that's the case worldwide.. It has nothing to do with the bible belt. If seven kids died in a disaster in Albuquerque, it would be just as prominant in the news.

Children are always the top consideration when it comes to protection.

I don't know, but I would imagine that when it comes to shelter, almost any country would have a no-animal policy. When we have communities threatened by wildfire here, one of the first things to be announced after human shelter areas are animal shelter locations (usually the county fairgrounds).

That sort of thing doesn't address an immediate emergency like a tornado.. You wouldn't have time to drop the horse/dog/gerble off at the shelter before seeking your own..

The simple fact is that pets are property.. They are not as important, legally, as human lives. Don't get me wrong here.. My four pups are family, and, believe it or not, I'd put my life on the line for them... But if I had to choose, I'd always chose human over canine.

As for the airplane issue and children, I agree.. Add restaurants to that list as well.. Benadryl is a parent's best friend...

 

[Davros]

^^ Fair point Q, as I haven't been in either a hurricane or tornado, but I have been desensitized to the warning sirens since the test them every Wednesday at noon in Denver.

I live in east Denver and have thought the same thing many times.

Although if I knew one was coming, I would ride it out in my basement. Even if the house collapses on me, at least I'd go out knowing that I tried...

The best I can hope for is to be at work or to dive for my crawlspace.

 

[RJDiogenes]

A shelter would turn you away????? What do they expect people to do who come running up during a storm with a dog in tow? Leave them outside while they go in??? That's contemptible. I'd sooner try to outrun it in my car with my Hannah dog.

Yes. They would let me in if I cut the dog loose. Now Trip (my dog) would wait outside by the door of whatever building I'm in... until he was swept away.

Why is this? The same thing that ruins most of life. People with children. "YOUR DOG COULD BITE MY CHILD!" "Your dog would mess on the floor and my child could get sick".

The only way my dog would bite a child is if the child yanked on his ears or tail. But most modern parents would blame MY DOG when they let their kid run wild to yank his ears. And as for the messing on the floor bit, I am far more likely to get sick from YOUR CHILD than your child is likely to get sick from my dog.

But this is the USA. This is the bible belt. Children are the only things that matter. Everyone else can suck it and die.

Okla News: "19 people died in a fire today, including 7 children". Really? 7 children? How many elderly? How many blondes? Why are children so special? Are they worth more?

Sorry if I sound bitter, but I am. YOUR child is more special to you than anyone else, I'll buy that. But they are not more important to society. In fact, they are less important. Let's take it to the extreme. All of humanity is going to die except 1000 people. Every parent would want their 3 year old to be one of the 1000, but if there were 1000 3 year olds left, they'd all die shortly after anyway. God strike me dead for smoking on a airplane, but your child can scream and scream and scream all the way from Kennedy to LAX. The most hated crime today isn't murder, it's pedophilia. So much to the point that there are people who have had to register as sex offenders for pissing behind a bar at 3:00 AM. Exactly how many children are endangered from a guy pissing on a dumpster at 3:00 AM? How many? The world stops for an Amber Alert, but if a regular citizen adult goes missing, it doesn't make the 10:00 PM news.

Well, that's because they're kids.

 

[Nerdius Maximus]

At least with these kinds of disasters you don't hear from Pat Robertson or others of his ilk, saying the people's sinful ways brought down God's wrath.

Fred Phelps is all over it, talking about "God's whirlwinds pounding the wicked" and promising to "Picket your stinky blasphemous memorials."