What is it that causes some people to react to every tragedy in life by trying to legislate the risk out of living in a free country? He deployed one of these in the path of an F4 tornado that destroyed the small town of Manchester, S.D., on June 24, 2003. The tornado caught up with him and his crew and ended them. One of Earth's loneliest volcanoes holds an extraordinary secret. 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. It is not inforceable. Hail and high winds were the chief threat, though a tornado could not be ruled out, forecasters said. 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. But, I suspect I know why you proposed that idea. They were probably thinking, somebody should do something about this situation.". News casters were telling people in the direct line of the tornado do drive south. But then the tornado made a turn and headed straight for the south that people were being told to drive to. Photographed with a wide angle lens, the mile-wide tornado, is seen near El Reno, Jack-knifed: Traffic slowly moves around a semi tractor-trailer that was blown off the highway by the tornado on Oklahoma Interstate-40, Stranded: Vehicles trapped by flash flooding sit underneath on the road in Oklahoma City after severe thunderstorms brought tornadoes, high winds, heavy rain and hail to the area. Pay special attention to what the weather forecaster says starting at 4:35: if you can drive south, anywhere around Whitewater Bay, State Fair Park, the Ballpark, downtown Oklahoma City, southwest Integres, US Grant District, Rose State college, Midwest City regional medical center, Midwest City, and Parts of Del city, you need to drive south now. (approximate transcript). This is an . You can read the preliminary version here. #1. the storms path was extremely erratic and it made a sudden turn that surprised even veteran forecasters. The chaser can be quite the problem but yet quite the provider of care in a situation where the emergency scene can span a few hundred yards to over a hundred miles. I'm reminded of Grand Island, NE in 1980, when the tornadoes defied everything we supposedly know about them. More than 200,000 were left without power in the impacted areas. Waiting: Oklahoma City's Will Rogers World Airport was evacuated. Like diving into the bath tub with a mattress on top for cover. Finally do what we did in California for earthquakes. Let's create MORE laws to regulate something we really do not know if it is a problem. After a large and violent tornado went through Moore Oklahoma a few days ago, several people in various media outlets including CNN mentioned that given the (seemingly enigmatic) lack of good shelter in homes and public buildings in Oklahoma, that a good option to protect yourself in case a tornado comes your way is to drive away. So, lets go back to the advice again. 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." 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. When she realized she was a sitting duck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, Ms Black turned around and found herself directly in the path of the most violent part of the storm. The last time we had a tornado warning where I live (July 2008), several people who work in my building actually went outside to look; luckily, the tornado never came close to us, because it was the worst one in state history (it was an EF-3 that had a 50 mile ground track). This storm was erratic and there will be more storms just like it in the future. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. Why are you so quick to blame the TV and not the idiots living in the heart of tornado alley who chose to get in a car when they knew there were already tornadoes in the area? 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. They can easily cite or arrest anyone they need to, and even temporarily imprison them, without charging them with anything. There's no wiggle room. "We still don't know why some thunderstorms create tornadoes while others don't," he . Thanks for contacting us. In a tribute, Mr Samaras' brother Jim wrote on Facebook: 'Thank you to everyone for the condolences. 'Use a telephoto lens for gosh sakes. 'We're never going to know, because they're not here to tell us,' Mr West told The Post. It was NOT caused by a traffic jam. 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. They went in the field focused on collecting data to enable meteorologists to further the science behind tornadoes which we know has and will help to save countless lives. Big blue trash cans were being tossed around like a piece of paper in the wind. Thankfully, I got out of it with just a few minor injuries and broken windows, but if a monster tornado happens people will not be as lucky as I was. Continuing on Helmets here is a link to a story on yahoo:http://news.yahoo.com/tornado-coming-grab-helmet-084500057.html. 'It's not even close to anything like what we had last week,' Smith said. Chaser traffic, maybe. Gone. I am not a believer in public shelters, so we need more people to take advantage of state and county rebate programs to get their own shelters. It is unfortunate that when such behavior becomes a problem society sometimes needs to make a rule of some kind. It still came down to the fact that you have to do what you feel is right (especially if it conflicts with what you are being told to do) and not just become a helpless lemming during an emergency. I agree, we only need laws if we need laws. - May 31, 2013 (his death) Other works book: "Tornado Hunter: Getting Inside the Most Violent Storms on Earth". The one thing in your article I see that you failed to address is the number of chasers in the past that have been killed by the storm while chasing them. 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. People started driving over the grass.'. state by state the possibility that some kind of adjustment must remain open. The family sheltered from the storm in a hospital parking garage. They are pictured along with fellow storm chaser Tony Laubach, Avid explorer: Emotional tributes have been made to scientist and storm chaser Tim Samaras, who died doing what he loved, friends said, Destroyed: The Chevrolet Cobalt, pictured, driven by Tim Samaras was thrown half a mile in the terrifying storm, Tragic: Tim Samaras was found dead inside the car, pictured, while the other storm chasers' bodies were discovered half a mile in either direction. ', 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. You do raise many good points about how such a law would be implemented, and some I can thing of answers to, some not so easily. I've looked at video and have counted 458 people outside their vehicles in that small strech of road. Flash floods: Two pickup trucks are pictured stuck in high water along NW 23rd Street in El Reno. A tornado could hit Oklahoma City, or it could hit Enid. This probe registered a world-record 100-millibar drop in pressure inside the twister. There are too many chasers/gawkers on the road these days.get use to it and prepare for it. Samaras holds the Guinness World Record for the largest measured pressure drop inside a tornado. They all unfortunately passed away but doing what they LOVED. Paul (1925-2005) was a photographer and model . 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. Obviously it's hindsight now that Tim and his crew were not caught up in any traffic jam and in fact the opposite. Three experienced tornado chasers actual meteorological scientists were killed when their truck (one of the vehicles depicted above, probably) was destroyed by the tornado. Were 20 of those people storm chasers? Some of my colleagues stayed, where there is a basement. The Weather Channel's severe weather expert, Dr. Greg Forbes, knew Tim personally. And now Also we MUST push for adqueate shelters. So it's quite the conundrum we find ourselves in. I do find it sad that that few if any of your statements regarding how the Twistex team was killed was accurate. Rick Smith, the warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service at Norman, said that while the storm packed a powerful punch, it wasn't as strong as the Moore tornado. In Missouri three people died in three counties after rivers rose to dangerous levels, and in Arkansas a sheriff was killed by flooding in Scott County on Friday. Do it right now,' local news forecasters told viewers. 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. Were looking at extremes in the rare EF5 category. 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All rights reserved. Dallas' independent source of Excluding the one thrill seeker and the three professionals that were killed in this event there has not been another incident. Most tornadoes in the United States are relatively small. Early aerial images of the storm's damage showed groups of homes with porches ripped away, roofs torn off and piles of splintered wood scattered across the ground for blocks. They should not drive where they will not be able to pull over safely to allow emergency traffic and other traffic to flow. 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. In his writeup of this event, meteorologist Paul Douglas made this point: Every time I went down to Oklahoma [with storm chasers] I was struck by the number of people tagging along. "We're trying to collect as many observations as possible, both from outside and from the inside. I do not understand the need for 'storm chasers' when we have the 503 WRS that routinely punches holes in tornados and drops sondes. Tim Samaras, 55, was found dead still belted into the mangled wreck, while the bodies of his son, 24, and Young, 45, were flung a quarter-mile away in opposite directions. Heres the technology that helped scientists find itand what it may have been used for. In fact, while writing this post I wondered what the three scientists were thinking as their car, and other cars, were hemmed in with a traffic jam that seems to have been caused by inappropriate reactions by a large number of people. It will NEVER happen. Mr West guessed the experienced storm chasers were attempting to parallel the storm on the county road and it either changed course or another vortex appeared. Keith: I know, I hate words! This in the super rare category because we dont deal with things like this often.. Two and half miles has been the widely accepted dimension, but if you measure wind speeds, the tornado could have been anywhere from three to 4.5 miles across. 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. Long story short, I and many others took cover in the hotel bathroom as the tornado headed straight toward us (to hit at 7:05). OKLAHOMA CITY The deadly tornado that struck near Oklahoma City late last week killing 18, including three storm chasers, had a record-breaking width of 2.6 miles and was the second top-of-the-scale EF5 twister to hit the area in less than two weeks, the National Weather Service reported Tuesday. It will NEVER happen. 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. 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? 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". Three veteran storm chasers were among the 10 people killed following Friday's EF3 tornado in El Reno, Okla. The traffic could have been created for any number of reasons. Pay attention to what he says. That was the sound of nuance rushing by your libertarian ear. 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. :) Police believe the woman was driving an SUV near El Reno when the powerful twister flipped the vehicle over. And, how exactly is an officer supposed to know the area to keep any car (stormchaser or not) out of? .". I realize you say in general terms such laws probably aren't enforceable and my question is then why make the laws? Many still believe mountains and rivers save towns. So, if you live in Oklahoma City and figure there may be tornadoes coming later in the day, there is nothing to guarantee that driving north to Aunt Millies house in Enid, OK will not put you in the path of one of the tornadoes that happen to form that day. I can't imagine the trauma of living through a tornado strike. Their deaths may not seem surprising; storm chasing, as you might expect, has its risks. Can we bring a species back from the brink? Tim Samaras' Death - Cause and Date Born (Birthday) Nov 12, 1957 Death Date May 31, 2013 Age of Death 55 years Cause of Death N/A Place of Death May 31, 2013 Profession Meteorologist The meteorologist Tim Samaras died at the age of 55. The roughly 5,000-year-old human remains were found in graves from the Yamnaya culture, and the discovery may partially explain their rapid expansion throughout Europe. Damage from Friday night's severe weather was concentrated a few miles north of Moore, the Oklahoma City suburb pounded by an EF5 tornado on May 20 that killed 24 people. Also, their data helps us to better understand the dynamics of what happens in tornadoes which can help make safer structures. Or, amateurs could get to a good viewing area well ahead of anticipated severe weather, and then stay put and off the road. How did this mountain lion reach an uninhabited island? At the time that Samaras, his son, and his colleague, were crushed to death inside their tornado-chasing car, which was apparently rolled by the force of 200-300 mile an hour winds over a distance of a half mile or so, it was said by numerous news sources that this car had been trapped by a traffic jam caused by looky-loos who wanted to see the tornado and/or people sent out on the roads by a local weather reporter to "escape." Storm chasing is definitely in the "Don't try this at home, kids!" The tornado then hurled the light Chevy Cobalt to the ground, leaving it looking as though it had been rammed through a trash compactor, police said. Samaras was born November 12, 1957 in Lakewood, Colorado, to Paul T. and Margaret L. Samaras. Just then the power went out and I heard what sounded like a freight train. Renowned researcher and storm chaser Tim Samaras, 55, his son Paul Samaras, 24, and his chase partner Carl Young, 45, passed away after they were overtaken by the multiple-vortex tornado, which appeared to be in the midst of a sharp change in direction. And, I've argued that telling people that the safest thing to do is to get in their car and drive is wrong. 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. Samaras acknowledged the dangerous weather conditions Friday in his final tweet before his death: Individuals and institutions across the fields of storm-chasing, meteorology, and media expressed their sorrow and condolences to the victims' families Sunday. Terrible things they are! The worry soon turned to flash flooding and floodwaters topped four feet in Oklahoma City on Saturday morning. In St. Charles County, at least 71 homes were heavily damaged and 100 had slight to moderate damage, county spokeswoman Colene McEntee said. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group. She quickly regretted it. But that brings in another issue doesn't it? After 20 seconds, it rotates back around to the south side of the tornado. The forecast quality will always be better than for small-scale phenomena like tornadoes. And again. 'He was either washed off the road or tried to get out of his car. Storm chaser Tim Samaras observes a blackening sky in Kingfisher, Oklahoma. I remember Pa wearing this Civil Defense helmet and he was chirping on this big ol' walky talky! When the winds were at their most powerful, no structures were nearby, said Rick Smith, chief warning coordination meteorologist for the weather services office in Norman. On Tuesday, Storm Chasers star Joel Taylor died at 38. We are part of Science 2.0,a science education nonprofit operating under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. It may be only a matter of seconds before you have time to find shelter. This tornado was also pretty unique in that the forward speed of the sub vortices in it were at or above 150mph. Mr. Robinson also had forward and side facing dash cams operating that day and the Twistex crew's Chevy is the only other vehicle visible in any direction on Reuter Rd for the last 15 or 20 minutes of the chase. But that is not a reason to not have the laws. Twistex Memorial dedicated to 3 killed in El Reno. Plan for a lifetime, like I did. That's what they're made for,' long-time storm chaser, David Hoadley, of Falls Church, told The Washington Post. I would say to such folks the same thing a fire chief would say to people who are not trained, qualified, or equipped to study burning office buildings but feel that somehow being close to one would help them provide insights about fire safety: "Move along, you're not helping but just getting in the way here. 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. I don't think people realized how deep and strong the water was.'. Injuries that were INCOMPATIBLE WITH LIFE. At the same time, many helpful comments have been added to the post. It is fairly safe to say, that Mr. Samaras, his son, and Mr. Carl Young, sustained injuries when the sub-vortex of the El Reno storm directly impacted their vehicle on Reuters Road, west of the intersection with Radio Road. 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