However, people are not immortal and sometimes die doing the very thing live for, you simply can't legislate that human desire for adventure out of existence, nor should you try to. He also starred in the Discovery Channel series Storm Chasers. As we wrote a while back, the National Weather Service downgraded the tornado from an EF-5 to an EF-3. I refer you'all to this: http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/06/19/pilger_nebraska_torn, I think the only thing storm chasers should do is be apart of the new pioneering field of tornado disbursement, its a idea I had years back in the field of weather modification using scaled up drone quad copters to deliver large quantities of helium gas to new forming tornadoes. I answered in good faith. And if public safety is truly the issue at hand here then instead of telling people to get in their cars and trying to figure out some sane and responsible way to evacuate from the path of a tornado mandate better public and privet shelters in areas more prone to this kind of weather. This is an . Tim Samaras, 55, along with his son, Paul Samaras, 24, and Carl Young, 45, died on Friday in El Reno after a tornado that packed winds of up to 165 mph picked up their car and threw it, somersaulting, a half a mile. The boy and other family members had sought shelter in a drainage ditch. In the case of the El Reno tornado, traffic in combination with road bottlenecks (over a river) did in fact cause a number of storm chasers (and go watch the video to get an idea of how many storm chasers there were!) They were screaming, Were going to die, were going to die,' Randolph told USA Today. You are absolutely right, that this tornado was a particularly monstrous one. ', Danger: A series of violent storms and tornadoes have killed nine people as they swept through Oklahoma City and its suburbs on Friday, Damage: People survey the damage at the Canadian Valley Technology Center's El Reno Campus after it was hit by a powerful tornado on Friday, Crash: An airplane from the Aviation Technology department lies upside down on the lawn at Canadian Valley Technology Center in El Reno. 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". We have strong public service announcements for months before and during fire season about making a fire safety plan for your household and how to listen for public safety messages on high fire risk days - and those announcements for the duration of the fire are very cautious about advising people to get away only if it is safe to do so. #1. the storms path was extremely erratic and it made a sudden turn that surprised even veteran forecasters. We have many many laws that are more or less unenforceable. One is that people may have been encouraged via chatter in a number of places to use "driving away" as their strategy for getting away from this particular tornado. The update from the National Weather Service means the Oklahoma City area has seen two of the extremely rare EF5 tornadoes in only 11 days. Twistex Memorial dedicated to 3 killed in El Reno | KOKH Samaras shows probes he uses to measure. I decided to let the comments speak for themselves, because, after all, this post was written three or four days after the event, and the comments reflect more recently available information and analysis. Will Rogers World Airport was evacuated as Oklahoma City braced for the tornado, that was moving at 40mph. It's your life so guard it like you own it. After 20 seconds, it rotates back around to the south side of the tornado. It airs at 10 p.m. EDT Wednesday. Scientists just confirmed a 30-foot void first detected inside the monument years ago. It gets logistically harder to do this if the affected area includes Cairns or Brisbane, because if you are evacuating people from low-lying areas you have to leave the roads open long enough for them to get out. At Will Rogers World Airport, 2,000 people spent the night sheltering in underground tunnels, reported News 9. Ironic how his own community of chasers would throw him to the wolves but won't put themselves in that category. Most new laws seem to be rehashes of existing laws that can be adapted. That would also be my preference, so we are in agreement. Making a law which makes it illegal to chase storms will make it practically impossible to get enough data to understand tornadoes. I've been reading Jeff Masters' blog regularly. Anyone can be wrong and that includes forcasters on tv, government and business emergency policies. Using the unfortunate but unrelated deaths of well known storm chasers to rail against people trying to seek safety from a storm by getting out of the way strips any slight merit or credibility from your already weak and less than well thought out argument. 'Tim was a courageous and brilliant scientist who fearlessly pursued tornadoes and lightning in the field in an effort to better understand these phenomena. Missouri and Illinois around St. Louis were also hit by 12 tornadoes, at least 100 people are injured and 'numerous homes' have been damaged. Three experienced tornado chasers actual meteorological scientists were killed when their truck (one of the vehicles depicted above, probably) was destroyed by the tornado. After the devastation of the Moore tornado, many residents who had experiences the storms before decided to ignore advice to stay home and tried to seek shelter elsewhere. In some but not all cases, this advice was qualified; If you know several hours in advance that there is a high probability that a tornado will come through your area, then it is a good idea to just go away and be somewhere else. This is not about them, it is about their death, which at the time it happened, was claimed to have been caused by a traffic jam caused, in turn, by thrill seekers jamming the roads, and thrill seekers jamming the roads is a thing that happens. We are part of Science 2.0,a science education nonprofit operating under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. 'It's not even close to anything like what we had last week,' Smith said. That is the speed at which they rotated around the tornado, not their recorded windspeed. The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said it believed the deaths were the first time scientific researchers were killed while chasing tornadoes. And we're wasting it on stupid, silly things like party balloons. Samaras submitted this footage to National Geographic in the weeks leading up to his death,. I'll never do it again.'. This is not an especially enforceable regulation". Tim Samaras - IMDb There is a large university team with a NASA/NOAA grant that I know of, and a number of professional chasers are grad students at a university, but that is not the same thing. local news and culture, Brantley Hargrove Standing water was several feet deep, and in some places it looked more like a hurricane had passed through than a tornado. Those media outlets need to do a more professional job and take their responsibility as journalists rather than entertainers more seriously (generally, not just with respect to tornadoes). Our hearts also go out to the Carl Young family as well as they are feeling the same feelings we are today. Stop having idiots chase things. This is my last post at Scienceblogs.com. CBS from Dallas agrees with Dorothy from KC and OL from OKC. So, lets go back to the advice again. Chaser traffic, maybe. Samaras was killed along with his son Paul and storm chaser Carl Young in Friday's tornado in El Reno, Oklahoma.
An engineer by training, Samaras was known for devising instruments that offered the first views inside live tornadoes. Brandi Vanalphen, 30, was among the hundreds of drivers trapped on traffic-snarled roads as she attempted to flee the tornado system menacing the suburb of Norman. Jim Samaras said his brother, nephew and their colleague were dedicated to avoiding trouble while chasing storms, and that the family wasn't worried about whether he was taking care of himself. . Hail and heavy rain pelted the metro area to the point that emergency workers had trouble responding to 'widespread' reports of injuries. Your argument that talking about a way to address a situation in which people lose their lives is inappropriate because the situation is an emotional tragedy is actually the misguided reaction. 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. He knew what to look for. Law enforcement in a tornado emergency already has immense priorities safeguarding the areas affected, treating the injured, rescues, ascertaining what equipment is needed, etc who would be pulled off those duties to chase down minor traffic violators? An engineer by training, Samaras was known for devising instruments that offered the first views inside live tornadoes. I am thinking these scientists were blaming the storm track far more than the traffic. Three storm chasers died in that storm. The storm path could have gone many other directions. On her way home after the worst had passed 'the roads were like rivers,' she said. Samaras, 55, his son Paul, 24, and Young, 45, were all killed while trying to document and research the storm. 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 Storm Prediction Center said scientific storm chasing is performed as safely as possible, with trained researchers using appropriate technology. The rain was coming down horizontally in front of my car. Flash flooding accounted for some of the deaths, such as that of a 65-year-old man who died on Saturday when his car drove off a damaged bridge in eastern Oklahoma County. Once it's used up and gone, it's .. gone. ", In reply to by Danny Caputi (not verified). Biography - A Short Wiki We are still burying children and victims, so our emotions are still strong,' he added. But seriously, I'll be talking about the story of the current, In every area of life, but especially in the overlapping realms of technology, science, and health, misunderstanding how things work can be widespread, and that misunderstanding can lead to problems. At the end of the day this is just a silly notion. " Tim Samaras dies: Tragic last words of father-and-son storm chasers On Tuesday, Storm Chasers star Joel Taylor died at 38. Flood waters up to 4ft deep hampered rescue attempts and frequent lightning roiled the skies well after the main threat had passed to the east. - May 31, 2013 (his death) Other works book: "Tornado Hunter: Getting Inside the Most Violent Storms on Earth". Look at that video. I would just add that other media outlets had apparently been talking about "outrunning" as a strategy for a couple of days before this particular tornado, so the idea was perhaps already in people's minds. So, that apparent fact was part of the underpinning of the original post (below). He knew where not to be and in this case the tornado took a clear turn toward them," he said. state by state the possibility that some kind of adjustment must remain open. Were 20 of those people storm chasers? It is not like the Tornadoes have a rule book that if we follow we are safe. Plan for a lifetime, like I did. It encouraged all, including the media and amateurs, to chase safely to avoid a repeat of Friday's deaths. But that is not a reason to not have the laws. Hopefully, that lesson will be learned immediately. "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. Bart, the fact that the tornado was extreme is certainly the biggest factor, but I did not overlook the fact that this event (these storm chasers getting killed as well as three others luckily surviving a badly rolled over car). October 1, 2013 (MORE: Tornado Hunt Team Takes Direct Hit by Tornado). A storm chaser who heeded the bad feeling in his gut and decided to hang back that day told me the tornado was "designed to kill storm chasers." According to meteorologists about six to eight inches of rain fell in a 12 hour period between 7 p.m. Friday and 7 a.m. Saturday. People started driving over the grass.'. That's really all I have to say on that issue. 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. It's a valuable industrial & research gas. "Though we sometimes take it for granted, Tim's death is a stark reminder of the risks encountered regularly by the men and women who work for us.". Terrible things they are! The shredded pieces of the car hook to the south then across the road to the northeast: I have difficulty fathoming the violence implied in that paragraph. Samaras holds the Guinness World Record for the largest measured pressure drop inside a tornado. The Storm Prediction Center issued a statementSunday, saying it was terribly saddened by Tim Samaras' death. Oklahoma County sheriff's office has identified the victim as James Talbert, according to NewsOk. The bodies of another motorist and the Discovery Channel storm chasers, Tim Samaras, his son Paul, and Carl Young, were found in a three-mile diagonal path near N.W. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. Storm chasers being killed by storms isn't even a problem. 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). Samaras was born November 12, 1957 in Lakewood, Colorado, to Paul T. and Margaret L. Samaras. I do not understand the need for 'storm chasers' when we have the 503 WRS that routinely punches holes in tornados and drops sondes. At the end of the day, he wanted to save lives and he gave the ultimate sacrifice for that," Jim Samaras said. I appreciate that, it is a good idea. The majority of schools are built from concrete blocks that are not reinforced. I don't think anyone's rights need to be taken away Too many people clogging the roads in a chase situation makes it difficult for anyone to get away when a storm turns on them. We MUST conserve every bit of helium that we can get our hands on.