For those suggesting regulation on storm chasing. The tornado caught up with him and his crew and ended them. Such a law or regulation could be more general, specifying that police have the authority to direct people generally in relation to emergency disaster zones that have not happened yet. Flash flooding accounted for some of the deaths, such as that of a 65-year-old man who died on Saturday when his car drove off a damaged bridge in eastern Oklahoma County. Bolstering your argument by supposing the dead agree with you indicates how weak your initial argument is. Storm chasers being killed by storms isn't even a problem. 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. @Hamish: One reason that can work in Australia is because most of the region that is vulnerable to tropical cyclones (a hurricane is a tropical cyclone with sustained winds of at least 64 kts/74 mph/118 km/h) is sparsely populated. A two-and-a-half mile wide tornado would not look like a tornado to a lot of people, Smith said. I remember Pa wearing this Civil Defense helmet and he was chirping on this big ol' walky talky! Scientists just confirmed a 30-foot void first detected inside the monument years ago. A small tornado in Kansas, photographed during Tim Samaras's lightning expedition in August 2009. The majority of schools are built from concrete blocks that are not reinforced. I do not understand the need for 'storm chasers' when we have the 503 WRS that routinely punches holes in tornados and drops sondes. Or, amateurs could get to a good viewing area well ahead of anticipated severe weather, and then stay put and off the road. Hoadley has been in the business for 57 years and pursued the El Reno twister. I don't know what they were thinking in a state packed with cars and almost no other transportation options and few shelters. Discovery Channel said it will honor the three veteran storm chasers, who regularly appeared on its show Stormchasers, with a special airing this week. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. How did this mountain lion reach an uninhabited island? During the United States tornado season, it seems that we experience repeated tornadoes and other severe storms in a given area over several days. 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. This would make it so a chaser has to stop to render aid along his path. In fact, we probably need more professional storm chasers, and among storm chasers my feeling is that we need a better more comprehensive research design. Their car was found upright in a ditch with its wheels blown off and the engine a quarter-mile away. Were 20 of those people storm chasers? Five tornadoes battered the Oklahoma City area on Friday, while another tornado hit the Tulsa area early Saturday. Everybody was running for their lives,' said Terri Black, 51, a teacher's assistant in Moore. Long-time friend of Tim Samaras, meteorologist Mike Nelson, told the Denver Channel: 'I have known Tim for over 20 years, he was the most brilliant and most careful severe weather researcher of them all. The men worked as a team and Tim Samaras had received 18 grants from the National Geographic Society for work in the field. These devices, which he . Tim Samaras - IMDb None of them contributes to the scientific research and experimentation going on. Storm Chasers Tim Samaras, Paul Samaras and Carl Young Killed in Injuries that were INCOMPATIBLE WITH LIFE. What do you think? They should not drive where they will not be able to pull over safely to allow emergency traffic and other traffic to flow. We have strong public service announcements for months before and during fire season about making a fire safety plan for your household and how to listen for public safety messages on high fire risk days - and those announcements for the duration of the fire are very cautious about advising people to get away only if it is safe to do so. The Storm Prediction Center said scientific storm chasing is performed as safely as possible, with trained researchers using appropriate technology. Storm chasing is definitely in the "Don't try this at home, kids!" An element. Pete, Born: I think this is a difficult question. Bart, the fact that the tornado was extreme is certainly the biggest factor, but I did not overlook the fact that this event (these storm chasers getting killed as well as three others luckily surviving a badly rolled over car). Winds swept one vehicle with a crew from The Weather Channel off the road, tossed it 200 yards and flipped it into a field -- they escaped major injury. Here is all you want to know, and more! Big fires are also pretty unpredictable and they can drop burning embers many kilometres away from the fire centre. But I'll just say that I think there are less extreme solutions than putting a ban on all amateur storm chasing. You can read the preliminary version here. Storm Chaser Tim Samaras Dies; His Last Tornado Footage . The Oklahoma State Department of Health reported on Saturday that Oklahoma City-area hospitals treated 104 people. The family sheltered from the storm in a hospital parking garage. The spot a few yards off Reuter Road where the body of Tim Samaras was found inside the crushed vehicle (his son. But if the Acme Office Building, on Main Street, is on fire, broken glass is blowing out of windows and fire trucks and other emergency vehicles are trying to gain access to the building and nearby fire hydrants you cant walk down Main Street you are not really free to walk or drive up and down Main Street to take pictures of the event. That would stop several people right there. Continuing on Helmets here is a link to a story on yahoo:http://news.yahoo.com/tornado-coming-grab-helmet-084500057.html. Having a law about something means that society wants certain things to happen or not happen. meteorologist. It would have been a major problem. Our community has suffered a terrible loss and our thoughts and prayers are with their loved ones. A National Geographic team has made the first ascent of the remote Mount Michael, looking for a lava lake in the volcanos crater. These things will always be unpredicable and its good to hid under the basement steps! Greg is definitely right about the distinction between researchers who need to be close to the storm to do their research (people like Samaras) and people who are doing it just for fun. When the amateur storm chasers descend upon the same area they create a real hazard for the professionals by blocking escape routes. It's your life so guard it like you own it. Samaras' car was perhaps too slow and too light, and the road was not amenable to fast driving. In Canadian County, Okla., where the men died, Undersheriff Chris West noted the three were hoping to help understand violent storms. Tim's death is a stark reminder of the risks encountered regularly by the men and women who work for us. 'We're never going to know, because they're not here to tell us,' Mr West told The Post. 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). Among the injured was a meteorologist from The Weather Channel. Meteorologist Mike Bette is nursing minor injuries after his 'tornado hunt' car was thrown some 200 yards by the storm. The storm path could have gone many other directions. That's why safety experts say you need a plan. More than 210,000 customers lost electricity in the areas affected by the storm. 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 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. It encouraged all, including the media and amateurs, to chase safely to avoid a repeat of Friday's deaths. 2006-2020 Science 2.0. This kind of movement is nearly unheard of in a tornado and that paired with the fact that the tornado was 2.6 miles wide, moving at an accelerating speed, turning 45 degrees suddenly, and had recorded winds of up to 295mph in it created the perfect scenario that no one could have predicted. Countless hikers have fallen to their deaths from cliffs. 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. 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. This included CNN. Joel Taylor starred . That's two more vehicles going into the danger zone. This is not an especially enforceable regulation but having such a thing on the books would probably encourage amateur storm chasers to think twice about putting others in danger by contributing to blocked roads. You are absolutely right, that this tornado was a particularly monstrous one. He knew where not to be and in this case the tornado took a clear turn toward them," he said. Flood waters up to 4ft deep hampered rescue attempts and frequent lightning roiled the skies well after the main threat had passed to the east. I agree, Chris, that the specific suggestion that I made in the post that existing protocol should allow emergency personnel to keep roads clear. People were going southbound in the northbound lanes. 'The trees were leaning literally to the ground. The interstate was shut down due to the storm, with multiple crashes and injuries. "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.". Most tornadoes in the United States are relatively small. They can't have this, because the traffic is a factor, but yes, Samaras and his crew were not killed this way. Meteorologists had warned about particularly nasty weather Friday but said the storm's fury didn't match that of the tornado that struck Moore. Also dead were Tim's son, Paul, and Carl .