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Keeping natural disasters in perspective"I would never live in a place where those tornadoes come through," is the statement made to me by people who think of the Central Plains as one swirling mass of weather lifting up houses, like the Wizard of Oz, and shattering everything into kindling wood. It happens, and the results are terrible, but I find that we all accept a "risk versus reward" society where we rationalize the hazards of life where we live and pity others for what they endure. The outbreak of tornadoes has been particularly bad this year. Last weekend, several towns from Colorado to Minnesota and Iowa were hit by strong storms that did a great deal of damage and took lives. A week earlier, the storms were in the Southern Plains destroying homes and agricultural buildings. With our ability to gather news and broadcast video of anything that moves, we have unwittingly given the impression that these storms are widespread and numerous. The fact is that, if you observed from one spot for a lifetime, you would have a very low probability of seeing a tornado, let alone being hit by it. The fear of these super cells, as the TV meteorologists call them, is what keeps most of us safe. If you've ever experienced a thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado, you never forget it. The clouds take on shapes rarely seen and the atmosphere feels like it has an electric charge. The storms usually come out of the southwest and the only way to be safe is to seek shelter in a reinforced concrete room, preferably underground. That should have scared a few more people. Tornadoes are so powerful because they are so concentrated. The path of destruction is focused and often has spots along its path where no damage occurs at all. I was a young vocational agriculture teacher living in Union City, Okla., in 1973 when a documented F-5 (the highest the Fujita scale measures in the real world) hit the town on a late May afternoon. It formed about five miles west and took almost 30 minutes to move into a populated area. It tracked mostly east and a little south and stayed on the ground for about seven miles. The town was warned by radio, television and police so most of the residents were in the school gymnasium, or their basements, when it passed through. The damage was unbelievable as homes were pulled off their foundations and distributed for hundreds of yards. Even block structures were destroyed and several vehicles were mangled wrecks as they were thrown through the debris. After the storm passed, people came out of the shelters to find that two elderly residents had been injured and later died: one woman who fell down her basement stairs and one man who was cut by flying glass. The tornado that tried to wipe the town off the map actually put it on the map. The Union City tornado is now legendary and news coverage is done on each anniversary of the storm. People born into the Plains accept these natural phenomena that are both beautiful and dangerous. Those who move into the region are sometimes oblivious to the threat and don't understand the need to have a plan of action. Some learn too late that a mobile home is not the place to be in a tornado. In Moore, Okla., in 1999, a generation of homes without shelters, and residents without knowledge, paid a heavy price for not being vigilant. Now let's put thunderstorms and tornadoes in perspective. I would be afraid of living in a low-lying coastal area. Hurricanes (also known as cyclones or typhoons) don't hit very often and there is usually a 24- hour warning before they make landfall. Most people who are killed, die by drowning and the storms last for many hours before they pass by. I don't like either of those things and can't imagine riding out a storm for an entire day. Let's say you live on the west coast and you get hit by an earthquake. They happen without warning and cause buildings to crumble and highways to collapse. An earthquake is quick and rare, but deadly near the epicenter. China lost over 40,000 people in the most recent disaster. Volcanoes speak for themselves as to their destructive capacity. They seem pretty easy to avoid, if you don't live in Pompeii or on the slopes of Mt. Saint Helens; but I'll take funnel clouds and swirling winds to hot poisonous gas and molten lava any day. We live in a world where natural events can cause great trauma. We've learned that we can't control everything around us, although we continue to try. We live in a special region because of its opportunity, beauty or by accident of birth. We go forth each day with an understanding of the risk of life; yet, what is the alternative? No place is entirely safe and no method of transportation can get you there without risk. Being aware of our surroundings and making life-saving decisions allows us to turn our attention away from the fear of death to what's really important: the joy of living! Editor's Note: This is Ken Root's 34th year as an agricultural reporter. He grew up on a small farm in central Oklahoma and started his career as a vocational agriculture teacher. He worked in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri as a broadcaster and was the original host of AgriTalk. He has also been the executive director of the National AgriChemical Retailers Association in Washington, D.C. and the National Association of Farm Broadcasters in Kansas City. Ken is now the lead farm broadcaster at WHO and WMT Radio based in Des Moines, Iowa. He has been a columnist for HPJ and Midwest Ag Journal for seven years. 6/2/08 Date: 5/30/08
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