A Tornado Can Kill You

I guess the word has not gotten out about how dangerous a tornado can be, or maybe it’s just a case of poor perspective.  The story was all over the Internet this morning and even made the CBS morning news.  As we hear from this report, “Some World Cup fans in areas of New York and Pennsylvania were irate at a local TV station Sunday for cutting into the last few minutes of the World Cup final to cover a tornado warning.”  They posted several examples of twitter messages, including one that could be interpreted as a veiled threat, “I hope this weatherman has life insurance.”

Is a tornado warning important enough to interrupt the World Cup, or any other sporting event for that matter?  The National Weather Service Forecast Office uses clear  definitions.  A warning “indicates that a particular weather event is imminent or occurring” and is "issued for significant weather events which will pose a risk to life and property” indicating “forecaster confidence of at least 80%.”  More specifically, a tornado warning is issued “when there is evidence based on radar or a reliable spotter report that a tornado is imminent or occurring.”  This differs from a watch, when conditions are favorable but no clear evidence is available.

Even if nothing results, how can people sit on their sofa in front of the TV and declare that watching two other countries' national teams play soccer is more important to them than an imminent risk to lives and property?  Maybe it’s not their own lives and property, only the lives and property of their neighbors or others several miles away within the station's viewing area.  No rational person should be able to look at such a scenario and become irate.  Sure it may be irritating, but it’s only a game!

Perspective should tell us that it’s only a game.  Even if it were the US playing in the World Cup or the Olympics or if it’s your favorite team playing in the Super Bowl or the final game of the World Series, it’s only a game!  Think about how privileged we are to afford to give these games as much time and importance as we do.  Think of how we must have taken that privileged position for granted to the point where we can conveniently forget that tornados can kill while we put sports and entertainment at a higher priority.  It's fine to get emotional and excited as a viewer, but we must never lose track of the facts:  it's only a game and a tornado can kill you.

(Pay no attention to those people rioting in the streets in Argentina.  Americans are not the only ones who need to improve perspective!)

Tornado Season and Priorities

Whether as children or adults, we’ve all had pets that we loved to distraction.  We pampered them, cared for them and mourned their death, sometimes for months or even years.  People describe their pets as part of the family.  Americans are crazy about their pets.  Some even remember a pet in their will.  “It's estimated that 70-80 million dogs and 74-96 million cats are owned in the United States. Approximately 37-47% of all households in the United States have a dog, and 30-37% have a cat.”  This does not even include goldfish, snakes, gerbils, birds, rabbits and all the rest.  But the craziness must stop when human lives are at stake; it’s only a matter of perspective!

The subject today is not about some crazy cat woman living alone with 80 or 90 felines.  It’s about seemingly normal, typical, everyday people who are making choices so outrageous and irresponsible that it’s nearly beyond description.

This Associated Press article describes the dilemma of state and city officials in Oklahoma regarding the admittance of pets to tornado shelters.  The problem is understandable.  Dogs and cats cramped into a small space with strange people and strange animals are likely to misbehave, cause distractions, or even panic.  They don’t understand the significance of being safe in a shelter during a storm.  They may cause injury to themselves, to other animals, or to people in the shelter.  The very real clean up issues, though minor in comparison, are also increased.

Most of the people can’t afford to build a personal shelter and depend on the government for their safety.  They don’t think ahead about these issues and naturally assume their pets will be welcome.  That too is understandable.

The craziness comes when they arrive and are told their pets are not allowed.  Rather than abandon his dog, one man chose to ride “out the storm in his car, one of the most dangerous places he could be.”  In another example, “Suzanne Brown, 48, rushed to shelter at the local city hall, which was equipped to accommodate 1,000 people. She managed to sneak in her cat, but not her Pomeranian, so she remained outside as the storm came through. She was unharmed, but eight people in nearby El Reno were killed.” 

You might think that if people want to risk their own lives, it should be their choice.  Fair enough, but the real extreme occurred “when one family was asked to put its dogs outside to make room for another family that had arrived.  The adults actually got into fights over that decision and trying to boil down the priority of who should be inside a facility during a storm: a pet or a person.”

We all love our pets, but to value the life of a dog over the life of another human being, even a complete stranger, shows an unbelievable failure in perspective!