I am hereby referring you and all readers to the comments. Before the horrific events of May 31, 2013, when the huge El Reno tornado took the lives of scientist Tim Samaras and his crew, a twister had never killed any chasers although several had died. This advice sounds reasonable, but it really isnt. It would have been a major problem. Most new laws seem to be rehashes of existing laws that can be adapted. To me the real imperative is to get a tornado shelter in most homes and businesses and educate the general public about what to do and what not to do. Scientists have to accept that. But that. This, in turn, would require storm chasers to make their case that they are professionals that are doing something worthwhile, and that they take appropriate action related to their own safety and the safety of others. Why not outlaw sky diving too? This tornado was also pretty unique in that the forward speed of the sub vortices in it were at or above 150mph. I'll take my chances sheltering in place, thank you. 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. Bolstering your argument by supposing the dead agree with you indicates how weak your initial argument is. Closing all of them strains law enforcement. Plan for a lifetime, like I did. I suggest that law makers in tornado alley states consider legislation making it a violation to intentionally drive into or near the path of known or likely tornados. I doubt that it would even have a measurable positive effect. 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!) That's really all I have to say on that issue. Caught in the midst of the gigantic storm was a group of storm chasers who had nowhere to hide. 'The car was probably about 60 to 70 per cent of its normal size because it had been pushed and mauled and compacted as it was tumbling down the road. meteorologist. Paul is right. Being stuck in traffic during a tornado outbreak is obviously unfortunate, but unless you can find a way to outlaw tornado formation in cities during rush hour, sporting events, concerts, accidents,or anything else that causes traffic to snarl, getting hit by a tornado while stuck in traffic is simply a risk one assumes by living in tornado alley and choosing to drive a car. The gas you'd save would easily pay for a shovel. Public safety officials have the right and responsibility to restrict access to Main Street and areas nearby in order to save lives and property. Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Betsy Randolph heard the panicked voices of the crew over her patrol radio right before the storm turned into their car. It may be only a matter of seconds before you have time to find shelter. His body was found but the wildlife officer is still listed as missing. The Oklahoma State Department of Health reported on Saturday that Oklahoma City-area hospitals treated 104 people. Paul (1925-2005) was a photographer and model . I assume those are passed to make legislators feel good about their jobs. That would stop several people right there. "Samaras was a respected tornado researcher and friend who brought to the field a unique portfolio of expertise in engineering, science, writing and videography," the center's statement said. "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.". 2) "But the hundreds, or even thousands of non-professional storm chasers are probably not contributing to the science of tornadoes and tornado safety." Of the 60 EF5 tornadoes to hit since 1950, Oklahoma and Alabama have been hit the most - seven times each. Thanks for contacting us. Samaras was killed along with his son Paul and storm chaser Carl Young in Friday's tornado. 'We were very concerned this would move into downtown. The weather service initially rated the Friday tornado that hit El Reno as an EF3. I've heard horror stories about the attempt to partially evacuate Houston in advance of Hurricane Ike. One might argue that if someone wants to drive their car into the path of a tornado they should be allowed to do so because it is a free country. But please, do we need new laws? I live in a rural town in southern West Virginia, however we are no strangers to tornadoes in 2001 a tornado ripped several close friends houses to shreds and they were only saved by using the old bath tub trick. Tim Samaras, his son Paul and colleague Carl Young died Friday night when an EF3 tornado with winds up to 165 mph turned on them near El Reno, Okla. After years of sharing dramatic videos with television viewers and weather researchers, they died chasing a storm that killed 13 in Oklahoma City and its suburbs. One simple idea was to have either a hard hat or some sort of hard shell helmet to wear. The deaths of Mr. Samaras, his son, and Mr. Young had absolutely nothing to do with the horrendous traffic affecting other parts of Oklahoma on May 31. Eye of the storm: Tornado researcher Tim Samaras monitors the radar (left). 'They were screaming, "We're going to die, we're going to die,"' she recalled to USA Today. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Sher told ABC News: 'When the troopers found them, they were both deceased.'. Also, there are nearly no public shelters anymore, due to liability issues. Regarding the rest of your comment. In 2013, Tim Samaras died in one of the epic storms he'd spent decades chasing. Education may help, but first we need to educate Meteorologists in the media, the brilliant minds out there need to come up with a set of definitive standards on what to do and what not to do and hold the TV weather accountable, develop an educational program for the public, but most of all give people a place to go, public shelters or something for safety, if people have a shelter they more than likely wont get in their car in the first place. A Carrollton High School Claims Employee Gave Student Prescription Drugs, Rep. Nate Schatzline, Under Fire for 'Drag' Video, Accused of 'Doxxing' Keller ISD Mom, Another Carrollton Fentanyl Arrest and an On-Campus Overdose at R.L. His pioneering work has made it easier to warn people about tornadoes. Doppler imaging pegged the tornado's width at 2.5 miles, the widest ever documented. For example, the requirement to hold a permit to chase could be limited within a certain radius of a city or residential area, where congestion is more likely to create a danger to public safety. Even if the people who are at risk of vehicular projectiles are innocent bystanders, chances are they're at more risk from the tornado than the cars in them. Plain and Simple what needs to be done now is EDUCATION. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. I'm not saying these circumstances are sensible or humane, but they are the case nonetheless. Laws are really challenging to enforce. I was in the northern part of the metro and we were nervous because most tornadoes through here track NE eventually. Of those who did I dont know how many of them were primed to use drive away as a strategy by earlier chatter in major media outlets, and elsewhere such as twitter and other social media. Despite the horrible fact that some two dozen people died in the Moore tornado last week, there were tens of thousands of people directly in that tornados path, hiding out in low interior rooms within their homes or other buildings, who survived. The comments below have not been moderated. Excluding the one thrill seeker and the three professionals that were killed in this event there has not been another incident. It's just news. Flash floods: Two pickup trucks are pictured stuck in high water along NW 23rd Street in El Reno. 'For reasons that are not clear to me, more people took to the roads, more than we expected. please note that I did not claim in my post what you claim I claimed. He gave direction to leave if in the path. 564K views 9 years ago June 3, 2013Tim Samaras spent more than 30 years researching tornadoes. We MUST conserve every bit of helium that we can get our hands on. They never follow the same track. In St. Charles County, at least 71 homes were heavily damaged and 100 had slight to moderate damage, county spokeswoman Colene McEntee said. I can only assume that Tim Samaras had no intention of being in the path of the the tornado that killed him, his son, and his colleague, but was unable to get out of the way because of the traffic jam. Officials added five victims on Monday to the confirmed list of dead from the tornadoes and from storms that caused severe flooding: three adults and two unidentified children, the medical examiner's office said. So it's quite the conundrum we find ourselves in. They were screaming, Were going to die, were going to die,' Randolph told USA Today. The result, even in dry, acronym-heavy academic language, manages to serve as both an enlightening and horrifying account of storm chasing's worst day. Police have a hard enough time now dealing with emergencies, the last thing they have time to do is stop to write tickets. ScienceBlogs is where scientists communicate directly with the public. The National Geographic Society made 18 grants to Tim for research over the years for field work like he was doing in Oklahoma at the time of his death, and he was one of our 2005 Emerging Explorers. On the other hand, if you calculate its width by how much debris was lofted into the air, we may be talking about a mile and a quarter to nearly two miles in width. And two, the chaser would have to carry a business license on his person to prove he had a need to be there for whatever his business reason might be. In Missouri, areas west of St. Louis received significant damage from an EF3 tornado Friday night that packed estimated winds of 150 mph. Stop having idiots chase things. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous. An image taken from video shows the vehicle that longtime storm chaser Tim Samaras, his son Paul and colleague Carl Young were killed when a powerful tornado hit near El Reno, Okla. on May 31. Tim shared data and results. Waiting: Oklahoma City's Will Rogers World Airport was evacuated. Academic Postmortem of Tornado that Killed Tim Samaras Is Chilling Brantley Hargrove October 1, 2013 1:50PM The American Meteorological Society has released a preliminary version of its. The reason that is bad advice is very simple. "We're trying to collect as many observations as possible, both from outside and from the inside. There are some similarities to people doing volcano research, in that people doing it know they have a high risk of death if they happen to be on duty when the eruption occurs. This was the case with Mt. If you live there, there should be no excuseyour life depends on your knowledge. They didn't happen to be overrun by a killer tornado at the time. The boy and other family members had sought shelter in a drainage ditch. Apply that technology to license plates instead of faces. It needs to be taught in public schools, teachers also need to take these courses. At the same time, many helpful comments have been added to the post. "We still don't know why some thunderstorms create tornadoes while others don't," he . It truly is sad that we lost my great brother Tim and his great son, Paul. A 51-year-old teacher's assistant who also tried to run from the storm said she quickly regretted her decision, after becoming stuck in traffic in the path of the tornado. 1) "Three experienced tornado chasers actual meteorological scientists were killed when their truck (one of the vehicles depicted above, probably) was destroyed by the tornado." I will not comment at all in regardess to the death of Tim, Carl, or Paul, as they were close personal friends of mine and I am not reading to speak on that subject currently. Big blue trash cans were being tossed around like a piece of paper in the wind. Because of your action, your car has become a very large and dangerous projectile. There is no certainty. When told to seek shelter, many ventured out and snarled traffic across the metro area - perhaps remembering the damage from May 20. 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. But yes, I agree that people deliberately in the wrong place at the wrong time should be penalized. I am stunned that that any forecaster indicated people should drive anywhere after 5pm that day. So, lets go back to the advice again. Im not sure how many people actually got in their cars and drove south. We do know, however, that the highways in the area became jammed with cars, and the vicinity around the intersection of I35 and I40 was described as a parking lot. One thing we do know is that many people who drove south to get away from the tornado in fact drove directly into its path, created a traffic jam, and most of the deaths associated with this tornado were among those people in those cars. But volcanoes usually give fair warning that an eruption is likely to occur in the next several weeks, and in most cases (at least in First World countries) authorities can control the few access routes to the volcano. What's eerie is that the subvortex becomes stationary on the road, like it chose to stop right on top of them. According to his Discovery Channel biography, Young and Samaras tracked down over 125 tornadoes together. 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. 'It was chaos. And, as I think I've said several time, Tim and his crew were professionals, making an important contribution. If idiots who don't know what they're doing want to drive into a twister, let them. Writing new laws on the books is useless, even before the news agencies started this new trend which is disturbing you have people hiding under overpasses and pulling stupid stuff, Chasers have complained about this issue for years, notice numerous videos of truck drivers who even drive into the funnel, enforcement will be non existent because this puts law enforcement in a position of risk and is irresponsible, i agree with the tours, but again many people cannot afford the tours that are out there now and so they figure its cheaper to go it themselves, we can blame people for the groups death but the fact is that there were several unusual factors that caused this. It's even worse if you are an amateur tornado chasing on your own--at least the tour groups have an experienced person to warn them that the tornado is coming straight at them and they need to hit the dirt NOW! We need sensors in place, in advance of the storms. Television cameras showed debris falling from the sky west of Oklahoma City and power transformers being knocked out by high winds across a wider area. 'The trees were leaning literally to the ground. 3) "I suggest that law makers in tornado alley states consider legislation making it a violation to intentionally drive into or near the path of known or likely tornados." 'Our hearts also go out to the Carl Young family as well as they are feeling the same feelings we are today. 'Tim was not a cowboy, he was as cautious as possible about his approach to studying these dangerous storms.'. But the agency upgraded the ranking after surveying damage from the twister, which along with subsequent flooding killed 18 people. The majority of schools are built from concrete blocks that are not reinforced. I also agree that people should not be allowed to drive through tornadoes for the safety of others, however if people were not allowed to escape I believe that more shelters should be provided for individuals in the path of the storm. And we're wasting it on stupid, silly things like party balloons. If you're prepared to fight fire and defend your property you have to be there before fire starts and stay there for as long as it takes. 'They had no place to go, and that's always a bad thing. Five tornadoes battered the Oklahoma City area on Friday, while another tornado hit the Tulsa area early Saturday. Tornado warnings were also posted Friday night near Tulsa and near St. Louis. You argued that your car could become a dangerous projectile if you intentionally drive into a strong tornado, but so could cars in parking lots. The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said it believed the deaths were the first time scientific researchers were killed while chasing tornadoes. Storm chasers with cameras in their car transmitted video showing a number of funnels dropping from the supercell thunderstorm as it passed south of El Reno and toward downtown Oklahoma City. Tornadoes happen in bunches and clusters. Here's a new law we can make: Whenever there is an emotional tragedy, no laws related to it can be made for at least 5 years. Its a free country - youre obviously free to drive when and where you want, and I certainly dont want that to change, but something has to be done to avoid another tragedy like the one that killed 9 motorists Friday evening, including 3 professional tornado researchers Tim Samaras, his son, and intercept partner. Hail and high winds were the chief threat, though a tornado could not be ruled out, forecasters said. I don't know what Reed has ever done for science with his stuff. Damage: An Oklahoma home destroyed, its roof partially torn off after the tornado rips through, Salvaging: Residents retrieve belongings from a home destroyed by the tornados that tore through central Oklahoma. 82.6K subscribers Tim Samaras gained notoriety as one of the top stormchasers in the country, and a star of Discovery's Stormchasers, who helped us further understand the science of tornadoes. The violent winds enveloped Tim Samaras, 55, his son Paul Samaras, 24, and his colleague Carl Young, 45, toppling their car like a toy in a breeze. They can easily cite or arrest anyone they need to, and even temporarily imprison them, without charging them with anything. The interstate was shut down due to the storm, with multiple crashes and injuries. National Geographic explorer and storm chaser Tim Samaras devoted his life to unlocking the mysteries of extreme weather. It needs to be taught FREE for the public as well. 'I think we are still a little shaken by what happened in Moore. Tim Samaras Cause of death Tornado incident Known for Tornado field research Spouse(s) Kathy Samaras. Myers said the man left for work early Saturday and his vehicle was found empty near East Hefner Road and Dobbs Road just after 6 a.m. 'His vehicle was found washed off the road,' Myers said. I think it's an abomination that news forecasters suggested people drive away that temporally close to a suspected tornado touchdown. - Toxicology results have revealed the cause of death of a well-known storm chaser. If it was two more miles this way, it would have wiped out all of downtown, almost every one of our subdivisions and almost all of our businesses, White said. A total of five tornadoes struck the Oklahoma City metro area, the National Weather Service said. The morning after: Wilburn Shaw looks for personal items in the remains of his kitchen the morning after Friday night's storm that passed through St. Charles, Mo, Power outages: Tornado-damaged power lines hang separated from its pole after tornadoes that swept through central Oklahoma on Friday, Shattered dreams: A couple in St. Charles embrace as they look over their destroyed home after a violent burst of thunderstorms and tornadoes swept across the Midwest, Together: A mother holds her three children after fans at the Barons game were evacuated to the parking garage under the Cox Convention Center due to severe storms in Oklahoma City on Friday. And, just like a tornado, the last place you want to be caught in a fire is in your car. I've also suggested that traffic jams which could be caused by either of these effects can trap people where they don't want to be and that is dangerous to those in the vehicles. In tribute to his brother, Jim Samaras posted on Facebook: Thank you to everyone for the condolences. They were probably thinking, "somebody should do something about this situation.". He attempted to take his own life and spent several days in intensive care before ultimately succumbing to his injuries. Lighting up the sky: The storm chasers work was featured on National Geographic and the Discovery Channel as they tracked violent weather systems, 'Tim's research included creation of a special probe he would place in the path of a twister to measure data from inside the tornado; his pioneering work on lightning was featured in the August 2012 issue of National Geographic magazine. I don't think so! Second, the point is still valid. In the future I will be blogging at Greg Laden's blog, located at its original home at gregladen.com. The Samaras' and Young were pursuing an EF3 tornado as it bore down on a metropolitan area of more than 1 million people. Meteorologist Mike Bette is nursing minor injuries after his 'tornado hunt' car was thrown some 200 yards by the storm. ", Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic SocietyCopyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. That was the sound of nuance rushing by your libertarian ear. I could not agree more with the statement in this article saying that driving away is not the best option. Following their passion: Storm chasers Tim Samaras (right), his son Paul Samaras (left) and Carl Young (second left) were killed on Friday by a tornado. Its very scary I dont think a normal person can fathom just how scary. "We're trying to collect as many observations as possible, both from outside and from the inside. Which, I think, was one of Greg's original points. Samaras was born November 12, 1957 in Lakewood, Colorado, to Paul T. and Margaret L. Samaras. Then we get the micro information they are hunting, reliably and in a timely manner. Eco-friendly burial alternatives, explained. 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. "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. My humble opinions: That is the speed at which they rotated around the tornado, not their recorded windspeed. Road closures exist now, but there are lots of roads. I was streaming the weather warnings at work throughout that afternoon, and the KOCO weather forecasters distinctly advised driving home if you could make it by 4pm and if you had a sturdy shelter at home. All rights reserved. And now Also, consider that there is huge debris in tornadoes regardless of whether or not some amateur gets caught in it. I've looked at video and have counted 458 people outside their vehicles in that small strech of road. "I don't know if I would say I worried about it because one of the biggest things he stressed was safety. 'What we saw from the tornadoes that came through Moore and the other ones last week was that people who were in cars on the Interstate were killed,' Fallin told CNN. Three veteran storm chasers were among the 10 people killed following Friday's EF3 tornado in El Reno, Okla. I remember my wife telling me a few years ago about her retail stores tornado policy which was contrary to everything I knew about safety during a storm. Most of the difference in predictability of tropical cyclones in the North Atlantic and the waters around Australia is that the North Atlantic has both a longer climatology base and a higher density of surface observations. He will be missed. She quickly regretted it. In a tribute, Mr Samaras' brother Jim wrote on Facebook: 'Thank you to everyone for the condolences. 'It was chaos Everybody was running for their lives,' Terri Black, who lives in Moore, said. Saying "Stay out of moore" wold just turn the would-be chasers in another direction that a storm or twister could emerge from.