Getting more people to act: warning response
January 6th, 2009
Beyond this, news media should coordinate with NWS to produce segments, pamphlets, whatever. We need to stress that it CAN happen to you. Stress when and where deaths typically occur. You get the idea. At least remove as much potential for ignorance or misinformation as possible.
IF this story turns out to be true then the same networks *****ing about some having no warning did not do their job and cut in to cover what was going on. Nice real nice.
I did my part this Christmas season. I bought everyone in my immediate family a weather radio. I programmed them and put the backup batteries in there before I shipped them out. After they received them I told them that all they had to do was plug them in and it was ready to go. My little sister that just had a baby lives in Woodstock IL and I called her back in January to make sure she had it plugged in and turned on, she did not but I convinced her to do so. About 30 minutes later it went off for the tornado warning on the storm that started near Rockford. I don't think she will ever unplug it anymore and was really grateful that I got her one.
We got our first one after the August 28th 1999 Plainfield IL tornado from the fire station my dad was a volunteer at. At that time the radios were kind of a pain since they would go off for whatever county, we still used it anyway but with SAME that excuse is not valid anymore.
Of course we all say that the south should be prepared for tornado season as this time of year is their peak months, but as many have already mentioned, it is up to the individual to make the decision to save his or her own life. Now I really feel horrible for the elderly or the sick and wheel chair bound victums of any disaster that may no about the warning, but due to their condition or age, can't do anything about it. I just heard a story on CNN I believe it was from Tennessee where an elderly lady in her mid 80's was blown from her home, landed a couple hundred feet a way and survived. She said all night she was sitting there watching election coverage and then the next minute she woke up in a field. The same could be said for a teenager home alone on a night his parents are out working, with his nose in the computer or playstation 3 totally oblivious to the danger outside. Some of the damage photos I have seen from the event has shown a lack of a basement present....well what is there to do then? An interior room in the photos that Randy posted would have been blown away with the rest of the house. We as a group see the dangers of weather and many of us (if living in mobile homes/single family residence w/ no basement) when faced with a high risk would call up that friend, or work an extra shift at work, or hell CHASE the storms. Point is we are the truly "educated"(in terms of severe weather preparedness) and know what to do. It was our commitment to want to. Everyone in the USA is capable of learning where to go, what to do, and how quickly to do it.
The same with the fire plan most 1st graders bring home. Where do you go in case of a fire, where is the meeting place, forget all your valuables, come as you are. Maybe schools can start implementing designed tornado shelter maps for 1st graders to bring home. Okay when a warning is issued everyone meet downstairs in the storm room, or everyone run over to "Uncle" Mikes house across the street because he has a basement. In rural area I would think the majority of the population would know about a severe weather outbreak just by the simple fact that MOST schools were (A) let out early or (B) cancelled for the day. I can tell you if I was a parent and my 12 year old is coming in the door at 1130 AM I am certainly going to be asking questions. The older generation has set their ways.....either you believe it or you don't. I think the focus here is to teach the youngest child and build from there. Like Jeff Snyder posted, METEOROLOGICALLY speaking there wasn't much more we could do. I can bet you though......that little 4 to 10 year old affected by this tragedy will be a lifelong believer of IT CAN HAPPEN TO YOU.
EDIT: LOL Aaron beat me to the school education debate as he posted as I was typing so I guess for me it was more of a reinforcement.
We live in a free society (thank goodness) and there is nothing we can do to force people to take warnings seriously. Detailed morbidity studies have shown, in recent years, most (not all) of the people killed in tornadoes knew they were coming and chose not to take shelter. That is tragic for them and their families. However, we should not beat ourselves up over their unfortunate choices.
I think that about sums things up. The real problem is usually apathy, not failure to provide any warning. No one will ever be able to prevent every death from a tornado, no matter how hard we try. However, there is nothing wrong with better educating the general public on warning preparedness either.
Perhaps making a simple suggestion to your local media outlets to at least mention wx radios is the simplest most effect step many of us could take, can't see how it would hurt. Much like you send a letter to your local senator, send a letter/email to your local TV meteorologist, reminding/recommending they mention wx radios to their audience, if the general public is going to listen to any meteorologist its the TV guys. Maybe they'll even take it a step further, many news stations,(especially across the plains) are so news deprived anyway, they are often looking for any sort of "consumer" type stories. I see no reason why they wouldn't be at least interested in even doing a story on wx radios, explaining what they do, how they work, where to acquire ext.. ext...
I am a new member (my first post), who has been silently monitoring and learning from you, so I can satisfy a long time fascination with the weather (since as a child in KS). I felt compelled to respond to this thread because I am a public school teacher. I would love to see you visiting the schools like the fire and police departments do each year.
I agree many people handle weather with ignorance but more likely with a sense of “It won’t happen to me” attitude. So learning how to handle any severe weather must come through the youth. Teaching children is not a quick fix or 100% fool proof but one that works. See the evidence in this forum all the time.
In KS, weather is part of the curriculum from kdg to high school (but presented differently because each teacher or district gives it different emphasis like the teacher mentioned earlier). I suggest speaking w/ students during the week of a school tornado drill to increase the impact and relevancy. Show how your technology, education, and observations, keeps you and them safe. Have them practice safety procedures with you or do experiments that capture their curiosity and interest (ie previous post of movie). The local fire departments do this each year in Kdg or 3rd grade. It would be great if you became a staple in the annual planning for 2nd and 4th or 5th grades (This will depend upon the local districts emphasis.) If you wanted a more scientific and data oriented discussion, contact the junior high and high school science teachers, I’m sure they would love to have you.
If you as a professional decide to take it to the schools, in this age of NCLB (No Child Left Behind), you need to know the curriculum standards that are a part of your presentation. If you are aware of the science standards (in KS Standards 4-6 http://www.ksde.org/Default.aspx?tabid=144 or NSTA http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/nses/html/ ), then you will be more quickly accepted because you’re reinforcing the teacher’s goals before assessments. Teachers have to tie everything they do to a curricular standard in public schools. Teachers love guests speakers, it brings relevancy/urgency to the students and they listen to the “experts”.
Though I am a teacher and love the weather, the students will listen and heed your warnings before mine because you are the “expert”. Thanks for what you are already doing and hope some of you consider doing a small presentation in your local school(s). I would gladly have you come talk to my students.:)
at college in missouri i had a similar situation where at 11am it looked like 11pm. the storm was a monster. i was in my dorm as were 200 other residents. the tornado sirens sounded just as the dorm alert system went into effect. the wall cloud and funnel passed over the dorm!!!!! well the tornado hit a mobile home sales lot down the highway...
my experience with these events and looking back on them after reading everyones posts.. i think it is up to each individual to act on response to an active severe weather warning. introducing a plan at schools are great... but like teaching fire safety in schools i found most kids dont retain it until they are older.
like the recent outbreak and in the case of the college yes they had ample warning and all the nws and media did the best job... but that thing was huge even if one is safe in a home or structure if you have a massive tornado your pretty much at the mercy of the storm. and it is everyones responsibility to take safety measures and to ensure you are going to be safe... yes i know people like to see mother nature is an aswesome sight to see when she unleashes herself. i think it all boils down to common sense. seeing people that are safe at home get into a car ant try to outrun it and then end up planted into a neighbors house is sad... but thank goodness the guy survived.
the local weather alerts and coverage are different here in colorado then say in missouri. the media in mo are more in tune and have a wider and longer coverage of the storm. here in the springs area the local network alerts i noticed one station that broke into national coverage and stayed with the storm start to finish. i know for sure id rather see the updates then what oprah has to say on the book of the month. in missouri i loved the storm coverage they never broke away or went back to regular programs... peoples lives are in the line they keep you informed. not nocking how they cover it but it would be better to see coverage like i noticed in mo.
and well thats why the storm chaser and storm spotters do what we do.
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Honestly I don't know if it is true or not. Just passing along from CNN on the February 6th coverage. It seems believable though. Like stated earlier, what to do with the people who hear the warning, but can't do anything about it? Like the elderly or the mentally challanged or other physically challanged people? I am sure more than a handful of elderly people live alone in the USA. I am talking 80+ years old. These people may hear the warning, but may be to slow or bed ridden to get to shelter, if they even have any. It concerns me, because like I mentioned before, my own grandmother has a hard time moving from place to place now and that mindset of "it won't happen here" and her inability to make it from Point A to Point B in a certain amount of time could prove fatal. I know in my case if she keeps the NWR on and hears the warning, I think she could get to the basement within the average lead time of 11-15 minutes.
Another issue that truly pisses me off deals with another family member (I seriously think I was adopted lol) Whenever severe weather hits I have the whole house wired up to 3 different channels, 1- The NWS, 2- The Spotters, 3- EOC. Well if we are in a major event and the radios keep going off, this certain family member would go around and start turning off all the radios, because "she doesn't care and doesn't want to hear it'
Now I have heard of people saying "if it don't effect me, then I don't care" well in this case it's "it can effect me and I still don't care, because I know it won't" In my case it's a bit extreme because it literally sounds like a fire station with the amount of radio traffic going off. Least I know I will be prepared when that night storm rolls through. If you can sleep through that, then you must be a freak of nature lol.
I tell that story because I bring up another point. I know my weather radio is for the entire area, so in my case, Cook, Lake, Dupage, Will, Grundy, Kendall, Kankakee, Lake and Porter IN. How many people with the older radios will simply turn it down or turn it off because "it isn't affecting my area" or like the case Springfield, MO, faced earlier this year where they were under warnings for something like 7 hours.
It's that persons will to live. People make choices every day, some right, some wrong. I can't think of an easier choice than to live during a tornado by just following standard protocol. In this day and age out of 100 people effected by a tornado I would say maybe 5-10 LEGITIMATELY didn't know about it for one reason or another. If people watch the local news on a regular basis it is almost impossible not to know severe weather is in the forecast. Why not spend the night in the basement on the couch? or send the kids to a neighbors house for a "sleep over." It is so easy for me to say but with all the drama with politics and war and peoples lives going on, who really takes the 10 seconds to think about "hmmm what if a tornado hit me?"
All of these thoughts are swirling through my mind and have been ver since I was little. These problems are why I am still pursuing a meteorology degree. Meteorologically speaking I think we have a pretty good handle on forecasting what can happen. We just have to figure out a better way by mandating NWR's to every new home in the USA (last I heard it was certain states so correct me if I am wrong) If I had it my way there would be one in every single room of the house so there is no excuse why anyone can't hear it. I would also find a way where it would be impossible to shut off. But this is just one mans opinion.....and I guess I see everyone else's lives more valuable than they do.
Severe weather preparedness may be a sliver of the world's problems.....but to a meteorologist it is one of the most ongoing and prominent problems facing their field. Hats off to all of you guys who do your job and go above and beyond what's asked of you, it truly is a shame the majority of you still get blamed for the 20 year old out joyriding with his camera trying to find the night time rain wrapped tornado moving at 65 mph.......and you get the rest.
Now from the rural standpoint, Danny nailed it on the head.
How many people actually use the weather radios if they have them? This is a pretty big problem up here in the Chicago area in my opinion at least. I can't talk weather with any of my childhood school friends, because like most of the population, they feel "it never hits here" and immediately that will end the discussion. I was just at my grandmas house(shes going to be 78 in June) I bought her an NWR 4 years ago and put it in the kitchen adjacent to the bedroom in which she sleeps. Each and every weekend I come over to do chores and stuff for her. I find it unplugged the cord wrapped around it and it sitting in the corner collecting dust. Of course as respectifully as I can I explain that its there for a reason why would you turn it off. "Well it is not storm season" OR "It wastes electricity" are the two popular answers. As we have seen in recent years....ANY SEASON IS STORM SEASON....Case in point. Jan 7th, 2008 2 EF3's hit 50 miles away from where I am currently typing this.....I was on top of things....was she or anybody else with the same mindset of "It's winter." I don't know about the south or the plains or the east, but around here if it is not April and May then NWR's turn into that old christmas gift that your creepy uncle gave you.*GENERALIZATION* If someone is that concerned about a tiny weather radio wasting electricity then invest in some batteries.
The older generation has set their ways.....either you believe it or you don't. I think the focus here is to teach the youngest child and build from there. Like Jeff Snyder posted, METEOROLOGICALLY speaking there wasn't much more we could do. I can bet you though......that little 4 to 10 year old affected by this tragedy will be a lifelong believer of IT CAN HAPPEN TO YOU.
Dannys story about her grandma is so true its scary. This nearly hit the fan with the January outbreak last month. I have grandparents in NW Ark, specifically the Rogers/Springdale area. Back when I was in middle school (late 90s) I gave my grandma a wx radio as a gift. Well each time I came to visit after giving the gift I always found the wx radio in a corner collecting dust with the cord wrapped around it. So each time I had to set it up and plug it in. Well that really wasnt a problem at the time as my grandma was an avid watcher of the TWC. Well when I started at OU her health began to go down hill and she was sleeping most of the day so the tv was of no help. So you might say well my grandpa's there, he could take action. Well unfortunately no. 9 times out of 10 hes asleep in the back room too or out of the house somewhere. Hes almost as clueless as my grandma.
So long story short, the older generation are set in there ways, and thats just the way it is. So we must educate the young so when they get older they arent as stubborn as their elders.
I wish most other schools spent at least half of this time on these same subjects. Moreover, showing the students where to access weather information and how to interpret it, would be quite a simple task for many educators.
I know from personal experience, that a large percentage of the incoming students in my class say that their family has no plan as what to do if a tornado were to impact their community. If they do, they aren't communicating this with their kids. That's a shame, for many are home alone till their parents come home in the early evening.
i agree with everything dustin said to a tee, and i couldent have said it better myself...
all this discussion doesnt do a thing to change the outcome of a severe weather event...people KNOW what to do when theres a tornado out...i feel that it would be a small percentage of people who died going out to take a look and see whats up...what people do is their own responsibility, but in the case of yesterdays storm...you can clearly see, that even with warnings, and taking precautions...with a strong enough storm, it doesnt matter where you are if it levels your house...
they are big on safety at my job, they have safety meetings every wednesday at 9:15, and they cover all kinds of topics...they were talking about the severe weather last week, and told about how we all have to go to the breakroom in the back of the plant and wait until they do a head count, and wait until and all clear is sounded...
it doesnt matter if everyone was in that breakroom if an EF-4 come tearing through the plant, if it happened to destroy the above-ground level breakroom...then it doesnt matter how safe, or what precautions you took...you were just in the wrong spot at the wrong time...
I see what you are saying and point you make and it certainly is valid. I am not suggesting schools spend thousands, millions, billions of dollars implementing education procedures. It just seems like a good idea for a volunteer of the NWS go out to schools for even a 30 minute presentation *remember this is namely grade schoolers so the level of content shouldn't be way over their heads* Even if that is too much, I think when the schools do their "fire safety week" they should also do their "tornado safety week." I remember every year around March 1st, our school would do a tornado drill. Go to the hallway in the fetal position and no talking. That would be it though. No explanation why, nothing. Especially grade schoolers....send some phamplets come tornado season for that area. Devote a day of classroom studies just talking about where you would go. Even if it just the teacher him or herself talking could go a long way since we all know how easily influenced younger kids are. After the period of anger and hurt some of these little kids go through after losing family to nature, I am sure the majority of them will want to learn about it. I used to be terrified of tornadoes and thunderstorms after seeing what happened to Plainfield, IL, in 1990. But where that fear came from, also sprouted interest. I believe fear in this case is just lack of understanding and knowledge. From that grew respect. I can guarentee you no matter what age you are living in those impacted areas the 5th, that a new fresh respect has occured. I truly feel said for that 1 yr old found alive in the field, that will never grow up to know their mother.
Dustin you are exactly right that teaching our young not to practice unsafe sex or not to drive drunk or do drugs is a major role. But if most schools could have a fire man come in and preach fire safety, or a police man come in and teach "stranger danger" and "DARE" then maybe a spokesman one day of the year to certain school districts would be an idea. How can you put a price on peoples lives? Which is the reason I think it should be completely Voluntary. To ask the millions of schools to do that would be impossible to achieve but at least the idea is there.
**I realize this is slightly off topic and I don't want to take away from the DISC thread, and I also don't want to dig up the year old thread, so it is your choice MODS**
Having the NWS visit schools is a great idea, but again is probably unrealistic, given the number of schools in most NWS CWFAs. If I recall, the NWS already publishes literature that is aimed at educating young children (i.e Owlie Skywarn books).
I've always educated my geography students on the structure and dangers of severe weather, but I don't teach a required class either. I think this is another problem at upper class levels, because students who take geography and weather courses are taking these classes as electives. I've always included a lesson on the uses and practicality of weather radios too.
How many schools DO NOT have adequate severe weather preparation plans in place? How many schools do not utilize weather radios? Perhaps the first step would be educating administrators and teachers on severe weather protocalls, which could then be passed along to students. Severe weather awareness week is a great time to infuse school curriculum with severe weather information, but it's going to be an interesting competition with state and national standards and goals.
The best solution at this point might be asking those of you who are reading this thread to take some time and make some contacts with your local elementary or middle schools. See if you can get in to make a presentation and share your knowledge of severe weather safety with the students. It's more likely to be met with success than infusing already bogged down curriculum programs with more material, as important as you and I feel severe weather awareness really is.
What do you mean educate them? It sounds like a great idea, though I guess I don't see what you can do to educate someone... I think about 99.999999% of people realize tornadoes are dangerous, what kind of education are you going to provide that will change the outcome after a tornado event such as Tuesdays? I personally don't think it's an issue of education, people don't need an education to realize that hearing the sirens or seeing the tornado warning's on TV means that there is inclement weather in the area, and I at least like to think that everyone knows what they "should do" during a Tornado Warning, no one really thinks it means run outside and look up do they? I can't imagine educating them would change rather or not they opt to do what they should do. And as for wx radios it's like trying to get everyone to wear seat belts, only a tougher battle, as your much more at risk not wearing your belt than you are not using your wx radio... as much as you pound it into peoples heads, as to what they should do, there will always be those who opt not to. Maybe I'm just completely overlooking the ignorance of so many Americans, and undoubtedly a quick lecture to young kids won't hurt, I just don't envision it changing the outcome when you have tornadoes such as those that occurred Tuesday.
My parents are the classic example of this, and I've given up trying to warn them. They reside between Murray and Paducah, KY and were nearly struck by one of the most recent tornadoes that eventually killed a few in and around Murray or Greenville, KY. I called them all day trying to convince them of the significance of this weather system. What did they do as the storms were approaching? They load up and go to Wal-Mart!
The NWS, Media, SPC, Chasers, Spotter Networks, Amateur Radio Groups, Fire/EMS/Police... they're all doing probably as best they can. But just like Harry Truman was on Harry's Ridge when the blast of Mt. St. Helen's occurred, some people just have the attitude of, "bring it on!" And some day, perhaps it will.
All we can do is keep hoping that with each new generation, and with a better understanding and education about severe storms, more people will take it seriously. For the most part, I think the system is working better. If this would have been 1965, probably hundreds would have been killed.
We'll always see the guy with no shirt on interviewed, saying "we had no warning." We'll always hear criticism of the warning system, but I say it's better than it ever has been and quite honestly, it will never be perfect because of "people."
I work at the Staples in town and had a couple with their young child come in asking if we sold weather radios. I informed them that we used to but unfortunately, someone higher up decided not to sell them anymore. With that said, I advised them to head over to the Radio Shack in town to purchase one. Thinking of how much media attention this recent outbreak has gotten, I asked if this was related to that event. They stated that they saw a news report about weather radios (brought on about the outbreak). They went on to say that the report stated that they are not only good for severe weather but also good at alerting people of "all hazards." In his case, his house backs up to a major highway and he was concerned about being alerted if a hazardous load were to crash nearby.
I think this is one point that is really missed when trying to relay the message that weather radios are an important piece of any place, especially in areas where severe weather doesn't occur very often. Not only do they alert individuals about severe weather, but they can provide detrimental information on localized civil emergencies that could potentially harm a large group of people.
I believe it is exactly that a debate... should schools really spend that much time, effort and money, all of which are already stretched thin, on an issue that claims relatively few lives? According to 2005 data that I could find, tornadoes kill 55 people annually and that average has been dropping (though Tuesday won't help). Compare that to these annual 2000 death #'s, tobacco 435,000, Poor Diet 365,000, Alcohol 85,000, Motor Vehicle Crashes 26,347, Suicide 30,622, Drug use, unsafe sex, ext. ext. There are many other issues that are of much greater threat to US citizens, you can educate people all you want on tornadoes, the problem still remains we can't prevent tornadoes and tornadoes kill people. It would be quite inefficient; the $ to life ratio would be much higher than if you were to invest that $ and time into other issues which are of greater threat to residents. Schools have limited resources, and there are much more efficient ways to allocate those resources than wasting them on an effort that even *if* it is effective would save such a relatively small number of lives.
These programs haven't been going on for very long, so judiging what kind of effect they have had is hard.
This might work in other areas, but the idea might be a hard sell to station managers. In the Tulsa area, the stations compete on the quality of their severe weather coverage.
That sounds exactly like my dad. A few weeks ago a small tornado hit New Port Richey while I was at work. The warning at the time stated the tornado would be near Odessa, FL, where we live, and he didn't care at all. I called him afterwards on my break and asked if he even knew about it, and he hardly did, claiming the warning was for the next county up and wasn't a big deal. He doesn't believe dangerous weather is happening until he can look out the window and see it, and that could very well mean its too late. It's a shame because I know he's smarter than that.
And for what its worth, the store I work at was unaware of the warning as well, despite supposedly monitoring a weather radio.
Stretched time in school is a legitimate concern. If done properly, however, would it really add that much more time? We already take time out of the day to do tornado drills... attach a little school-wide function on the same day. If we really want to get into school time issues, I'd be happy to share my opinion on the insane amount of standardized testing that occurs. I'll leave that out of this thread to avoid going off topic =)
I just don't envision it changing the outcome when you have tornadoes such as those that occurred Tuesday.I don't necessarily disagree... it's more of a laying a foundation to rid the population of the ridiculous myths that are still propagating.
Rather then giving all of the details here I'll provide a link to our state's Department of Health and Senior Services page that outlines the program: http://www.dhss.mo.gov/Ready_in_3/
On an annual basis I provide pamphlets, handouts and informational material across the county, especially to the schools and other areas where large groups gather and the information can be shared with the public. I will say that as with anything, it takes people actually using the information and heeding any warnings, but since it's introduction we have had a very good response from the people that have received the material.
I agree with Aaron that education in schools is a great idea. Is it feasible? I don't know. Perhaps others have checked into starting such a program, but if I had to guess (not to be a pessimist) I would have to think this would be a pretty challenging undertaking that would be difficult to implement, at least in the near future. It seems like it would take quite a movement to get this added as a standard to the curriculum. Nonetheless, it’s a great idea that would undoubtedly reach many certainly saving lives.
Danny mentioned that he remembers tornado drills in schools that were carried out with little/no explanation. I can remember this as well. Students looked at is as a break from the normal repetitive routine of school and thus it was an exciting time. These were carried out no more than twice per school year, if I remember correctly. An explanation was never given. It seems to me that this would be the most logical time to implement tornado education into the curriculum.
Dustin made the point earlier that there are many bigger and more significant threats to people than the weather. He mentioned that tobacco, diet, alcohol, automobile accidents, suicide, etc., are some of the ones that kill more people annually than tornadoes do. I believe this is a huge factor. Consider the number of people that continue to make poor choices in the above. I personally know quite a few people that either care little about their health—at least not enough to take action, who have at one time considered suicide, or who refuse to wear their seat belts. I venture to say if these folks (which make up a considerable percentage of the population) care so little about something that is more likely to take their life, why would they care about a threat that is less likely to take their life, tornadoes? The "I don't really care" attitude is probably something we'll always have to deal with. Why? That’s a question for the psychologists, I suppose.
Although a little off-topic, sporting events and other large gatherings are another example of a problem regarding action taken in a tornado warning. It has probably already been mentioned on this forum, but the Nashville Predators played the Carolina Hurricanes as a long-track supercell with a history of damage passed right over the Sommet Center in downtown Nashville. Here are a few radar images:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c336/rb4341/sommet.png
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c336/rb4341/sommet_2.png
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c336/rb4341/sommet_3.png
Fortunately, no tornado damage occurred in Davidson County last Tuesday. But, this was indeed a close call where the potential was there for large numbers of injuries and deaths.
It’s amazing to see the progress we’ve made in this science which can be credited to those in research that have provided operational meteorologists with amazing technology/tools to get their job done. As we continue to advance, lead time for severe weather warnings becomes less of a problem and it becomes apparent that more focus needs to be placed on the perception of warnings, which is something I know many have been working on, including Dr. Kloesel at the University of Oklahoma. Educating people and finding more convenient and practical ways to get the warning out is as important now as ever, considering that all tornado deaths in this past event can be attributed to the action, or lack of, that folks took when the warning was issued. Some never got the warning, but there was a warning for each tornado event in which someone died. I had a tough decision to make when I began working on my meteorology degree. I chose to take the road that's arguably less traveled and decided to transfer to a school that places more emphasis on operational meteorology, relative to other programs. My goal is to get the most that I possibly can out of my meteorology education to prepare myself for a job in operational meteorology, not research. My main focus will be on doing everything I can to change the public’s perception of warnings by understanding the psychological and social issues that have been discussed here.
Finally, I would like to apologize for taking Aaron's comments the wrong way earlier. The level of frustration is high when a once in a 20-year event (as far as lives lost and number of greater than EF-3/F3 tornadoes) occurs. It's been a rough last five days for me, personally—I’ve lost quite a bit of sleep.
Actually, I don't think it's an "increasing" issue. I don't think it's anymore of a problem now than 20 years ago. It's just with the abundance of news sources on TV and online, there are more sound-bytes of people saying, "We had no warning." And all it takes is one person to say "We had no warning" to get the talking heads on TV or print going.
As most of us are quite aware, this is not a new problem. In fact, I think the major push surrounding NWR (someone correct me if I'm wrong) came about because of the 1991 Andover, KS, event. I remember watching dash-cam video of a law enforcement official driving through the Golden Spur Mobile Home Park blaring his sirens and verbalizing the warning over his loudspeaker. As he turns into the mobile home park, you can see the right edge of the tornado and where it meets the cloud base in the background...yet, you see people walking their dogs, sitting outside, and just going about their business.
Most of the deaths were partially attributed to the fact that people waited for sirens to be sounded...I can't remember if they didn't sound, or if there just weren't any.
Fortunately, these types of massive severe weather events don't take place on a frequent basis. UN-fortunately, that pretty much means that we'll always have this situation. Sure, we can start this campaign, and we might reach some people. But, for those that weren't directly (or indirectly) affected by this, it will pretty much go in one ear and out the other.
Dissemination of the warnings will ALWAYS be the problem. We can educate people until we are blue in the face, but they still have to take action on their own. Since 90% of people are not frequently affected by these events, most won't take action.
I don't mean to sound like a pessimist, and I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. But in my experience, people that don't live in areas prone to severe weather will pay little attention to preparing for such an event...until something happens near or to them.
I equate it to people in the South not being prepared to drive on ice or snow. Most people down here figure it's an infrequent occurrence, so why be worried about it?
I've been involved with the public education system here in Texas since 2000. Weather education is severely lacking here. The education procedures are determined by the State Department of Education, which is run by politicians, not educators.
The science curriculum, tested by the state test TAKS, focuses extensively on physics, chemestry and biology. By highschool, students are expected to understand and work equasions with high level physics and chemestry processes. However I have found next to no high schools that offer a meteorology course, and those that do offer it as an elective and in combination with another earth science such as geology.
As a result, I have found that 6th graders usually do not know the difference between watches and warnings. They have zero understanding of basic meteorology dynamics.
Weather is mentioned briefly in the 2nd, 6th and 8th grade curriculums and is buried to less than several days at most within the overall geography/geology curriculums.
Thus, tremendous focus is spent on the phases of the moon, including their scientific names, the specific dynamics and types of fault lines-scientific names to boot, classifications of rocks and minerals, and Newton's Laws, and by 5th grade- series and parallel circuits, but almost zero focus on cold, warm, stationary fronts etc.
I personally find this frustrating, as of course we are a tornado and other weather disaster prone state.
Just the other day, I mentioned this issue to a science team director and she said "you got to do what you are required to do". When I told her that it's a shame that meteorology is not treated like physics, chemestry and biology since of course we could lose our roofs to twisters, she simply had no response.
I believe that education is important, and storm dynamics/safety should be included in the public school science curriculum.
Then we may have more cases of the situation analagous to the 6th grader who saved 300 lives by warning fellow beach goers of the impending tsunami, and credited her science teacher (in England) for this knowledge.
Yes, that's exactly what gets me in these events. You DID have warning had you chosen to have a way to receive such a warning. As far as I can tell, that area is covered by NOAA Weather Radio, which means that he had access to weather information had he had a weather radio. There is such an over-reliance on outdoor warning sirens (many of which are not designed and/or layed out to be heard by all residents inside their homes) that I really wish the NWS had more money to spend to advertise NWR/AHR. The local media around here (OKC) have been very good with their strong recommendations of weather radios, but I don't know the extent to which media outlets in the southeastern US advertise such devices. It also would have helped if the video (part of NBC Nightly News) had at least mentioned weather radio. *shrug*
Of course, part of my "ugh" feeling about this can be attributed to the fact that I read "tornado warnings found lacking" to mean that "tornado warnings" were not issued for some (many?) of the tornadoes, which is obviously not true. The "warnings found lacking" is at the lowest part of the "warning chain" -- how to get warnings from "officials" to the people. Unfortunately, the failure of this seems to be increasingly becoming an issue with the common citizens, as opposed to officials not issuing a tornado warning or local media not receiving that warning.
FWIW, we often hear this from at least one person interviewed after many significant tornadoes that affect a community.
The National Weather Service has a nationwide program that facilitates meteorologists working with public schools and other entities in the community on preparedness. This program is called "Storm Ready." Check it out. The link is below.
http://www.stormready.noaa.gov/
One of the warning issues that will need to be dealt with is how to reach cable/satellite viewers. There may be some areas that have an alert system that goes out spectrum-wide and overlays all viewing channels, but there aren't many.
Why were the cable networks covering politics instead of weather? It's very simple: they make billions of dollars off of politics in both ads and coverage, and very little off of severe weather. Since current top media management thinks ONLY of stock market profile, advertising revenues and correlated viewer ratings (with nary a thought of civic service, education, or - God forbid - art), media coverage of political campaigns is slithering into multi-year American Idol-type bloatations which deliberately and directly affect stock performance in ways that are not too far removed from fixing horse races.
If someone came up with an actuarial program that rewarded television outlets for the number of deaths prevented in a weather emergency, they'd be out driving through the streets in sound trucks and forcing people into shelters at gunpoint.
Your experience sounds familiar to my education. I can't recall a weather unit in elementary school... if it was, I surely knew more from the books my parents bought me to feed my interests. In 7th grade, I do recall having a unit on weather. We had to watch the old weather summary show on... what was it... PBS? I loved that show. We also had to analyze surface maps which is pretty amazing in retrospect. The main goal was to see fronts and understand what conditions were associated with them.
In high school, I took a science elective as a sophomore that covered astronomy, meteorology, and oceanography. I was the youngest student in the class. It was typically for seniors who failed chem and needed another science class to graduate.
I guess what gets me is meteorology is probably one of the most practical sciences that people *could* benefit from. << Aaron's official biased opinion.
12. MISSISSIPPI DELTA OUTBREAK
* February 21, 1971
* Especially Mississippi, also Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee
* 10 tornadoes
* 121 deaths
* 1524 injuries
* Damage ?
* 4:00 pm - 9:00 pm
This outbreak occurred the same month and in the same states (but a little farther south) than Tuesday's. It had double the number of deaths and the tornadoes ended earlier in the day (i.e., not as many people had retired for the night).
Tuesday's warnings clearly saved many lives.
We live in a free society (thank goodness) and there is nothing we can do to force people to take warnings seriously. Detailed morbidity studies have shown, in recent years, most (not all) of the people killed in tornadoes knew they were coming and chose not to take shelter. That is tragic for them and their families. However, we should not beat ourselves up over their unfortunate choices.
I don't necessarily disagree... it's more of a laying a foundation to rid the population of the ridiculous myths that are still propagating.
This is true. I think we all agree that educating the younger population is a must. Which way to do it is the most effective? I figure throwing in education at school would be most effective. That way you get almost 100% attendance than saying "Come on Saturday for a free 3 hour education on how to protect yourself during severe weather and popular myths that will be extinguished." It is almost like how I was brought up to believe there were 9 planets and recently has been trimmed back to 8. A lot of outdated information being passed around. Hell even near some big time universities, have college MET majors take a class assigned at a specific school to promote severe weather safety. Of course there are bigger more prominent issues out there, but in this case and in our field, this should be the biggest in dealing with public.
MYTH REALITY
Tornadoes don't hit cities: well show them from 1997 on and all the major areas effected.
Tornadoes can't hit my town because I am in a valley: Look at Clinton, AR
Tornadoes won't happen because it is not spring: Depends on your season
Tornadoes ALWAYS come from the SW: Probably only 50-75% true.
I mean these are still some that are going around today. If you have grade schoolers learning this, than the next generation of tornado knowledge and preparation is doomed. Until you actually experience it, you will never know. Most people directly impacted by tornadoes, never want to experience that again. If we can turn that fear around to respect and knowledge then the media may stop writing articles that people had "no knowledge" of the events happening. Perhaps the media should start writing...."People Fail To Take Warnings Seriously" instead of "Residents Complain Over Lack of Warning"
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