The Gun Counter

Watching a Nat Geo special on storm chasers that includes "tornado tourists" out in Tornado Alley.

Maybe I'm just sensitive having grown up on the edge of Tornado Alley, and years in Emergency Planning/Response as a volunteer and professional,

But every time I see the tourists ooohhing and awing over a tornado (often causing visible damage to buildings, etc.) exclaiming how neat and pretty it is, I want to bitch slap them and then kick 'em in the balls. And once they recover have them start cleaning up the mess. Gotta wonder if they'd make the same statements watching the mushroom cloud of a NUDET, or discuss the physics of how the smoke and flames interacted at the WTC.

Of course I've never cared for tourists as a category, and hate doing touristy stuff myself as a rule.

Note: I have no problem with storm chasers doing it for research, or spotting for the National Weather Service, local authorities, etc. They perform a valuable service providing info you can't get from remote RADAR facilities. I kind of like the idea of driving all over the plains for a couple of weeks just to remind myself of the real world outside of urban areas, but I'd only do it as part of a serious team, not paying a "tornado pimp".

OK, Rant Mode Off.

Yep, hate 'em too.

I spent the first 11 years of my life in the middle of Tornado Alley (Texas division). Saw more than a few twisters while I was out there, and learned how to spot tornadic weather beginning about the time I was old enough to stand still and pay attention to the incoming wall clouds.

Family up and moved down to central Texas, which, depending on who you talk to, is either outside or just on the southern edge of Tornado Alley. Not 3 months after moving, and on the same night we moved into our new house a storm hit and put 3 twisters on the ground, 2 of them less than a mile from our house between us and the school I was starting the next day.

Next day at school as we were meeting everybody in class the big topic in science was the previous nights weather. Apparently I was the only one who thought the event was kinda horrific. Everybody else was yapping about how cool it was and how they saw new homes still in the framing stage getting knocked off their foundations while they watched on their front porch or jet skis sliding down the main road because their owners didn't put them in the garage.

I guess that's the difference between folks who see Tornados as a once in a lifetime event, and those that have, or know someone who has lost everything due to mother nature getting pissed off.

It's the damn train wreck syndrome. Bastards just can't internalize a calamity as real unless it's happening to them or someone they know.

Same kind of people tell us we should just get over 9/11 because, hell, we're still alive.

F*** 'em.

ok to be fair, living through a natural disaster sucks... i lived through 3 hurricanes in six weeks a couple of years ago... the first one knocked out power for 9 days in the middle of july in orlando (hot as hell)...

but the sheer power of the storms were staggering... trees that were old when the Seminole Indian Wars were young felled like they were saplings... concrete buildings torn in half by trees... the amount of debris in the roads was nothing short of amazing... a pine tree some 6 ft in diameter twisted and broken like a twig (tornado damage)

but in the height of the first storm, i couldnt stop myself from going out on to my fairly sheltered front porch and just watching the chaos in amazement... the intense blue glow of transformers blowing up... a row of pine trees falling one by one across the street like a deity's set of dominoes... the clouds were amazing, the rain just incredible...

the aftermath was equally impressive... sure it was devastating, some people on my street lost every thing they owned... thankfully all my friends and family made it without major problems... my uncle did loose most of his shingles and suffered flooding on the back side of his house, but he used that as an opportunity to do the remodeling he had always wanted to do...

on one half of Orlando, all of the saplings were bent to the south... on the other side they were all bent to the north... as the storm cleared, the entire city of Orlando was dark, something i hope to never again see... as the cleanup progressed, the pile of mulched trees at the Orlando executive airport piled to well over 50 feet high and the base of the pile spanned several acres...

in all, what i learned was to never underestimate the power of nature... because all it takes is a bit of complacency for you to get kicked in the teeth...

but nature is indeed something to be amazed by as well... even in its destructive forces, it is a beautiful thing to see... frankly i think that there needs to be a balance of both views...

I could easily be a "Tornado Tourist", as I find all kinds of powerful natural phenomena to be VERY interesting. It's MUCH easier to be a "Tornado Tourist" than it is an "Earthquake Tourist" - even though I live in SoCal. I would LOVE to see those things up close to experience just a bit of their power, but only so long as nothing gets damaged or destroyed.

I'm the kind of person who, if I saw a house get blown up by a tornado, I'd head over to see what I could do to help. I'm in awe of their sheer power and the process it takes to form them fascinates me, and to watch them as they twist and turn and stretch wayyyyyyyy out is simply unreal. That does NOT mean I enjoy the damage and carnage it causes to fellow humans. I COMPLETELY understand the draw that guy has who made the Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV), that 14,000 lb beast of a vehicle he drives trying to catch the inside of a tornado on film using an IMAX camera.

When there's an earthquake, or a powerful storm, lightning, thunder, hail, etc., NONE of that scares me. I have a HEALTHY respect for lightning, but I find all of it incredibly fascinating.

What disturbs me is when people get excited when they see someone's home blown apart like a bunch of matchsticks - whether its from a tornado or a hurricane, or think it's neat to watch a boat get shoved into a house and both get destroyed due to storm surge and high winds, or watch a small town get wiped off the map when a dam breaks, or hear some IDIOT city dweller make fun of people living and farming the fertile river overflow areas and a levy breaks upstream during heavy rains and everything is flooded for miles around - and not even thinking they might be eating some of their food produced from that very farm. It pisses me off when people seem to delight in other people's misery (unless like someone said earlier, it's somebody they know or their own family - THEN they care).

Meteorites could cause a lot of damage, particularly the large ones, but I find holding one in my hand fascinating - to know it came from somewhere out in the galaxy, then streaked towards the ground at hundreds of miles-per-hour (in the lower atmosphere) until it hits the ground and someone finds it. But if it hits an occupied car, it might kill someone.

I don't like seeing people suffering from the effects of incredible natural processes, but I can't help but be fascinated by them all. Earthquakes would be great fun if nothing broke or fell down on anyone or caused damage to property.

Speaking of tornadoes, this video was shot about twelve to fifteen miles north of my house the other day.

Check out the coyote hauling ass out of Dodge about two thirds through.