Oklahoma weatherman

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/06/us-usa-tornadoes-meteorologist-idUSBRE95506S20130606

A well-respected weatherman in Oklahoma is receiving critcism for urging residents in the path of a violent tornado to leave their homes and head south by car. Many people believe that he is the reason why there was a huge traffic jam on the main highway. So far as least twenty people died that day, and several of the dead, including a mother and baby, were in their cars, trying to flee the tornado.

Weathermen have always urged people to seek sturdy shelter during severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. An interior room or hallway on the lowest floor, or a basement, are the best places to be during a tornado. But after an EF5 tornado decimated part of Moore, Oklahoma less than two weeks earlier, and many of the dead were in those supposedly safe areas, weather experts have started to say that sheltering is no longer good enough during a tornado of that magnitude. Many are now stating, "A direct hit by an EF5 tornado is unsurvivable."

My thoughts on this:
People in the path of an EF5 tornado are damned if they do and damned if they don't. Staying in your home may kill you; trying to leave may kill you. It's really difficult to know what to do. If you have enough warning, leaving might be the right option. But you have no idea how many other people are also trying to leave. And a tornado can both change direction and vary in strength. It can be an EF5 for awhile, then weaken, then re-strengthen.

I think putting all the blame on this one weatherman is unfair. There were other weathermen saying the same thing. And not everyone on the highway was there because they heard someone on tv tell them to do it. Some decided on their own. Some were on their way home from work, or somewhere, and didn't know how bad the weather was going to get. Forecasters had been talking about impending storms, but they blew up very quickly. The weather had been sunny and hot just a short time earlier.

EF5 tornadoes are not a new thing. But to have two in the same state, in the same part of the state, in less than two weeks - that is unusual. Maybe it was just an oddity. Or maybe it's a sign of our worsening climate problems.

Someone said to me the other day, "Anyone who lives in Oklahoma who doesn't have a basement or a storm shelter or a safe room is crazy." Did they stop to think how many people in Oklahoma can't afford a storm shelter or a safe room?" Safe rooms aren't cheap. And many houses in the state don't have basements because the ground is too hard.

librarianintx