Southern Indiana Tornado
Well I got to blog about this. A few days ago a F-3 tornado tore through the community of Evansville Indiana. One place in particular was a 350 unit mobile home park. I heard on the news about 140-150 of those units were completely leveled. 22 people died in this tragedy and 18 of those died in a mobile home park. Everything that I read suggested that this park of 350 units did not have a underground shelter (shelter(s)). The primary problem with that is the fact that a mobile home is primarily aluminum and a small bit of (usually) 2x2's. A tornado has no problem ripping these materials apart and turning them into large projectiles traveling 150+ mph. In a mobile home you have nowhere to go. Mobile home parks should have a underground shelter for its residents, because after all tornadoes like to eat mobile homes.
Now for my next beef. This article reviews peoples problem with the warning siren system. These sirens did go off. The problem is people didn't hear it, and they blame the sirens. This is a foolish stance to take especially considering these storms were preceded with 60+ mph winds. These sort of winds make a nice loud howling noise. I know this because these storms woke me up with those winds at 0230. And I was on the north side of the derecho. People need to follow some suggestions. Own a weather radio. Be aware of the conditions, these storms were organized in St. Louis, it took several hours to get here. Don't blame sirens that did go off and did save several lives. Especially don't blame them because their sound couldn't penetrate your closed up house and wake you from deep sleep.
Now for my next beef. This article reviews peoples problem with the warning siren system. These sirens did go off. The problem is people didn't hear it, and they blame the sirens. This is a foolish stance to take especially considering these storms were preceded with 60+ mph winds. These sort of winds make a nice loud howling noise. I know this because these storms woke me up with those winds at 0230. And I was on the north side of the derecho. People need to follow some suggestions. Own a weather radio. Be aware of the conditions, these storms were organized in St. Louis, it took several hours to get here. Don't blame sirens that did go off and did save several lives. Especially don't blame them because their sound couldn't penetrate your closed up house and wake you from deep sleep.
posted by Azzip at 05:33
1 Comments:
Hey Sean!
I agree that people shouldn't blame not hearing the weather siren. Even living in a basement apartment (which is brick, btw), I wake up to storms no matter the season. Winds like that can't be ignored (unless, of course, you're Sharon's family, all of whom either slept or worked through the storm).
One point, though: not everyone can afford a weather radio. This would be especially true for most residents of mobile home parks. Low-income persons worry more about paying their electric bills on time and putting food on the table than about lower-priority things. This, unfortunately, covers disaster-prevention aids such as weather radios. Possibly the better route would be to support whatever local/regional/national cause you care to that gives disaster supplies to low-income persons. This is an issue I worked on for RSVP as a VISTA, and it is TOUGH to get stores to donate *anything* disaster-related--outside of batteries.
Nice editorial letter in the paper, btw.
And more on the disaster stuff: I know it's that kind of thinking that gets people killed. However, people are GOING to think that way. That's a fact that isn't going to change, no matter how much we want to argue with people or point things out to them or whatever. What I'm saying is, since we know this, we should take steps that work. I know there's only so much government can do, but what can be done should be done--to save lives if for no other reason.
Out of curiosity, were you chasing when you called me the night of that tornado?
Peace,
Jenny
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