Tornadoes

[cartera45]

<p>

I hate statements like this.

</p>

<p>Hoping Wolf Blitzer got the message.</p>

[roshke]

<p>

I think a lot of the conversation about Hurricane Sandy was driven by people who were affected by it or were close to the event.

</p>

<p>I was going to say the same thing. A lot of people on this board were directly affected by Sandy and discussed what was going on, the logistics etc. in real time. That doesn’t mean that we’re watching these events with any less horror at the loss of life and property.</p>

[dragonmom]

<p>

I’d be tempted to move…yet surely now the odds are this town will be the safest in the country.

</p>

<p>Tornado activity isn’t random across the country any more than earthquake activity or hurricane activity is. This town will be at higher risk than most until continental drift and subduction change it’s geography or the seas engulf the prairies again, or the population dies away.</p>

[NYMomof2]

<p>I couldn’t agree more, sylvan.</p>

<p>cartera, Wolf Blitzer is an idiot. I don’t know why he’s still on TV. I saw the clip of his questioning the young woman. He asked her once if she was thanking God, and she sort of brushed it off. So he asked again, more intently, which is when she said that she was an atheist. The premise of the question doesn’t bear thinking about. “Are you thanking the God who sent this awful storm but spared you and your family, while killing others?”</p>

[Treetopleaf]

<p>I’m reminded of something a coworker said about his neighborhood - that it had never been hit by tornado or extreme wind storm. He wondered whether there was a little hill or depression or something that guided the winds around that particular neighborhood. (Plenty of other nearby hits, prompting his comments).</p>

[Nrdsb4]

<p>

I was going to say the same thing. A lot of people on this board were directly affected by Sandy and discussed what was going on, the logistics etc. in real time. That doesn’t mean that we’re watching these events with any less horror at the loss of life and property.

</p>

<p>Hurricanes tend to affect a much larger geographical area than tornadoes. Tornadoes can be horribly violent and totally destroy a given area, but compared to numbers of people affected and the physical area impacted, they are smaller. It’s not surprising that more CC members would be personally affected by a hurricane than by a tornado.</p>

[dragonmom]

<p>Local topography can certainly influence small tornado paths. But sometimes storms just defy logic.</p>

[Nrdsb4]

<p>

cartera, Wolf Blitzer is an idiot. I don’t know why he’s still on TV. I saw the clip of his questioning the young woman. He asked her once if she was thanking God, and she sort of brushed it off. So he asked again, more intently, which is when she said that she was an atheist. The premise of the question doesn’t bear thinking about. “Are you thanking the God who sent this awful storm but spared you and your family, while killing others?”

</p>

<p>Well, many of the people interviewed about the storm DID express thanks to God or made statements to the effect that for whatever reason, God spared their family. Many others made references to praying for their safety or the safety of their families. I don’t watch him, but maybe he’d heard it so many times already, he just figured everyone he interviewed would feel the same way.</p>

[Nrdsb4]

<p>

Local topography can certainly influence small tornado paths. But sometimes storms just defy logic.

</p>

<p>And a storm of this kind of magnitude is most certainly not going to be affected by a little hill or depression. </p>

<p>From an article “5 Tornado Myths Busted”:</p>

<p>

Myth #4: Rivers, lakes, hills, and other local landscape features block tornadoes.</p>

<p>Wurman says terrain certainly affects the weather, noting that where he lives, in Boulder, Colorado, strong thunderstorms are rare because of the impact of the Rocky Mountains.</p>

<p>And he says that being downwind of an ocean or large lake tends to decrease the likelihood of a strong thunderstorm-and therefore tornadoes-because air tends to cool over bodies of water, reducing its energy.</p>

<p>But such factors are dependent on large-scale geography, as opposed to being determined at a micro level.

</p>

[romanigypsyeyes]

<p>

I don’t watch him, but maybe he’d heard it so many times already, he just figured everyone he interviewed would feel the same way.

</p>

<p>What? He can’t think on his feet? Once should have been enough. </p>

<p>Sorry, I would have been pretty furious if someone asked me that question more than once. I haven’t seen the interview, but I can understand as an atheist why she’d be angry. </p>

<p>Didn’t we just have this conversation on CC a week or so ago? The inappropriate things to say during tragedy or something. IIRC, “part of God’s plan” and the like was pretty high up there. To me, that’s saying it’s part of “God’s plan”. The whole “Do you thank God for being alive?” thing because obviously it meant that God planned for the other people to die. (No, I don’t believe this, I’m just giving what it sounds like to some.)</p>

<p>I still have not turned on the news. After the last few times, I just can’t take it anymore. I’ve read a few articles. I’ve even uninstalled the apps from my phone that give me news updates. It’s disgusting and I refuse to be part of it anymore.</p>

[Nrdsb4]

<p>More tornado myths:</p>

<p>

MYTH #7: CERTAIN TOWNS ARE “PROTECTED” AGAINST TORNADOES</p>

<p>FACT: Just because a town has not been hit by a tornado in the last several hundred years doesn’t mean it is immune to tornadoes. Strong tornadoes can easily cross rivers, mountains, and canyons.

</p>

<p>[Tornado</a> Myths - NewsOn6.com - Tulsa, OK - News, Weather, Video and Sports - KOTV.com |](<a href=“Tornado Myths”>Tornado Myths)</p>

<p>

“I live in a big city, a tornado wouldn’t hit a big city.”</p>

<p>MYTH: Tornadoes have hit several large cities, including Dallas, Oklahoma City, Wichita Falls, St. Louis, Miami, and Salt Lake City. In fact, an urban tornado will have a lot more debris to toss around than a rural twister.

</p>

<p>[NCDC:</a> Tornadoes > Climatology](<a href=“http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/severeweather/tornadosafety.html]NCDC:”>http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/severeweather/tornadosafety.html)</p>

<p>

What? He can’t think on his feet? Once should have been enough.

</p>

<p>Didn’t offer it as a justification, just a possible explanation. I don’t know a thing about this guy and didn’t see that particular interview.</p>

<p>

Didn’t we just have this conversation on CC a week or so ago? The inappropriate things to say during tragedy or something. IIRC, “part of God’s plan” and the like was pretty high up there.

</p>

<p>Guess this guy and many of the people interviewed didn’t catch that thread.</p>

<p>Like it or not, a lot of people believe in God and His role in life; Oklahoma is right in the middle of the Bible belt, so rest assured you are going to hear a lot of these kinds of sentiments from the very people affected by this tornado if you haven’t already. They are traumatized and many will try to make sense of their tragedy by relating it to God, a possible plan, or other similar notions.</p>

[atomom]

<p>I’m having an unlucky year. I happened to be in Moore, OK yesterday–and in NYC when Sandy hit last fall. And I don’t live near either of those places.</p>

<p>We were returning from our D’s graduation in Dallas, and came into OKC area at the same time as the tornado. We pulled off the highway and waited until the storm was east of the interstate. Unfortunately, we got back on I35 before they shut it down around Norman.<br>
We sat on the closed section of highway–along with hundreds of other vehicles, mostly trucks, for 4 hours not knowing what was going on. Finally we made it to the exit (3 miles in 4 hours) Our only option was to go south again and find some back roads around the city to head north. Got home about 2am-- 6 hours later than planned. We did see some debris/damage on the back roads but only came within a mile or two of the main event. Strangely–we were only a short distance away and we experienced no bad weather–no rain, no wind, no hail, which we were bracing ourselves for. The clear spot seemed to follow us as we moved north.</p>

[Nrdsb4]

<p>^^^^^Wow, that’s kind of weird, atomom. :eek:</p>

[romanigypsyeyes]

<p>

Like it or not, a lot of people believe in God and His role in life; Oklahoma is right in the middle of the Bible belt, so rest assured you are going to hear a lot of these kinds of sentiments from the very people affected by this tornado if you haven’t already. They are traumatized and many will try to make sense of their tragedy by relating it to God, a possible plan, or other similar notions.

</p>

<p>I don’t care how one gets through a tragedy, whether that be through prayer, church, or therapy. I don’t care if someone says “Thank God I’m alive” or whatever. Doesn’t bug me in the least. At the shelter where I work, most of our donations come from churches and religious organizations. I love the nuns! I know a lot of people at our shelter volunteer at churches after they get to safety because they believe that God has intervened in their life to bring them out of the abuse they were in. If that’s what it takes to get through something, I will drive you to the church without hesitation and gladly. However, I do object to repeatedly asking about God, if that’s what happened, during a tragedy. IMO, it’s really not appropriate for a national reporter to ask about God unless the person has already brought it up… especially in the wake of something like this.</p>

[Nrdsb4]

<p>^^^^^^Romani, I don’t think anyone here has justified anyone repeatedly trying to get anyone to acknowledge God’s role in an event, particularly from someone who is clearly unwilling to do so. I just wondered if he was just lacking in insight and was just trying to shore up more of the same sentiment he’d already heard over and over. Perhaps he had an agenda-I have no idea as I’ve never watched the man.</p>

[NYMomof2]

<p>Here’s the video:</p>

<p>[Wolf</a> Blitzer Asks Atheist Mom If She Thanked the Lord | Video Cafe](<a href=“Wolf Blitzer Asks Atheist Mom If She Thanked The Lord | Crooks and Liars”>Wolf Blitzer Asks Atheist Mom If She Thanked The Lord | Crooks and Liars)</p>

<p>Wolf Blitzer always sounds like an idiot. The woman couldn’t have been more gracious. </p>

<p>I think that his pressuring the woman to make a religious statement was not only inappropriate, it was patronizing. I doubt that even this idiot did the same thing to the New Yorkers after Sandy.</p>

[cartera45]

<p>That interview was creepy before he even got to the stupid part. If they had not been standing on a heap of rubble, you may have thought he was interviewing someone at the circus.</p>

[Lergnom]

<p>If there is an agenda, it would be either:</p>

<ol>
<li>Don’t live where disasters can occur or</li>
<li>Take the sensible steps to protect if you do.</li>
</ol>

<p>I said the same thing about the coast with hurricanes: people can choose to live where they want but they shouldn’t expect the rest of us to bear the costs if their property is hurt because of their specific choices. That means people should protect themselves. </p>

<p>I note that in OK they’ve never required basements, which would have saved lives, not even small or partial foundation shelters, because that makes housing cost more. Same exact issue as on the coast: protection from storm surge requires money. </p>

<p>If there is a message from nature or God or whatever it is: spend the money for the protection or don’t live there.</p>

<p>Put aside the rampant hypocrisy of the OK legislators voting against Sandy relief and then demanding it for themselves. Put aside that they want to offset the cost of that by taking money away from people in other states, mostly poor people at that. </p>

<p>It sickens me that people die because government wants to keep housing as cheap as possible.</p>

[sylvan8798]

<p>^They were saying that the water table is too high for basements in a lot of OK areas. I think requiring the tornado shelters (a few thousand $$) would be a reasonable idea for all new builds. And a subsidy or tax credit for putting one into an existing home.</p>

<p>

@Lergnom

1. Don’t live where disasters can occur

Where would that leave?</p>

[lizard]

<p>More lives would probably be saved annually in America if everyone replaced the 9 volt batteries in their home smoke detectors regularily than if all homes in America were built with tornado safe-shelter rooms.</p>