Tornado Deaths Underscore Risks Of Taking Shelter In Cars

[Purveyor]

(05-12) 15:05 PDT Seneca, Mo. (AP) --

More than a third of the 22 people killed by a tornado that smashed parts of Oklahoma and Missouri over the weekend died in cars, troubling experts who say vehicles are one of the worst places to be during a twister.

"It's like taking a handful of Matchbox cars and rolling them across the kitchen floor," said Sgt. Dan Bracker of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, surveying the damage in and around Seneca, near the Oklahoma line, the hardest hit area. "This is devastating."

Among those killed were three people in Oklahoma who were rushing to reach a relative's house in their car; a woman whose car was blown off a road near Seneca; and four family members — Rick Rountree, his wife, his 13-year-old son, and his mother-in-law — who were in a van on the way to a friend's wedding when a twister packing winds of 170 mph struck the Seneca area on Saturday night.

"They were on the road when the warnings came," said Rountree's brother-in-law, Larry Bilke.

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"They can cover more ground than you can in your car, so unless you know you are moving away from the tornado the best thing you can do is find a strong structure," said National Weather Service meteorologist Andy Foster.

Val Castor, one of the many spotters who bring dramatic video of tornadoes to local TV stations in Oklahoma, said the number of people on the road during tornadoes seems to have increased every year since 1996, when the movie "Twister," which depicts meteorologists chasing tornadoes, came out.

He said driving during severe weather is extremely dangerous for the inexperienced because they don't know where a tornado will form or what direction it will go. Heavy traffic or a broken-down vehicle can prevent people from escaping the funnel cloud.

"Vehicles of any size really don't fare that well in a tornado. Vehicles can be thrown and tossed by the wind," said Rick Smith, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oklahoma.

As with mobile homes, the problem with cars is that they are not anchored to the ground, and the wind can easily get underneath them. Smith said winds of less than 100 mph can flip a car.

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/05/10/national/a160406D18.DTL

[uppityperson]

1. And DON'T be stupid enough to go up under an underpass, get down low to the ground.

There was a video a few yrs back showing some people who were incredibly lucky to survive taking "shelter" in one of the few underpasses in the country that had an enclosed sheltered place to duck into. Since then, people have been killed trying this and finding that there is no sheltered spot, but instead this gets them higher up (into stronger winds and more debris getting shoved threw them), and there is a wind tunnel effect making the winds even stronger, AND they get hit from 1 side, then another.

Get down low, as low to the ground as you can. A ditch, a depression, anything anywhere if you can't get behind/inside a strong structure. All the debris blowing around is what gets you dead. I remember a line from a report on deaths in the tornado I was in as a toddler. 1 kid was killed because he was impaled by a picket fence.

Chances of you getting sucked up to Oz are minimal, but there is a whole lot of shit being thrown around in the wind.

Cars, and mobile homes, roll. Get a ways away, hunker down, curl up, dig your fingers into the back of your neck and wait.

[ColbertWatcher]

2. I started a thread earlier...

...to remind people about earthquake preparedness (here). Maybe you can do something for tornado preparedness?

[hedgehog]

3. If you doubt the hazard of huddling under an overpass, talk to anyone

who has been caught by the high winds at the base of a tall building or between tall buildings caused by normal conditions. I grew up and went to school in Buffalo. I know whereof I speak!

[libnnc]

4. the one fatality that we had in the Greensboro NC storms on

Thursday night was due to someone taking shelter in a car.

:scared: