A Tale of Two Storms

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As you know (if you've read many of my discussions), I'm a weather geek. Yesterday (7/19) was a tale of two storms. One had a very positive outcome, while the other was tragic. Most of yesterday I was watching KCCI, Des Moines, Iowa. They had nonstop coverage of tornadoes that hit Pella and Marshalltown. The damage was extensive, to say the very least: the Vermeer plant in Pella took a direct hit, with about half of the buildings suffering damage from "significant" to "a total loss." In addition to the 2,000 employees, over 400 guests were at the plant for a "customer appreciation" conference in celebration of the company's 70th anniversary. The results? Less than a dozen minor injuries. Everyone had been treated and released by the time a press conference was held. Then there was Branson, Missouri. A duck boat was on a lake in the middle of a severe thunderstorm. It capsized, killing 17 of the 31 people on board. What was the difference? Why did so many in the path of the storm survive with cuts and bruises, while so few in the path of another storm had such a high death toll? Of course, the people in Iowa were indoors, which is where everyone says you should be in severe weather. The people in Missouri were outside, on a lake, in a severe thunderstorm. That's a disaster waiting to happen, and sadly it did. Neither of these storms "appeared out of nowhere." Watches were in place. The Springfield, Missouri TV station reported that the storm that hit the lake when the duck boat was on the river had carried a severe thunderstorm warning with it for nearly two hours. Apparently the people in Iowa took things seriously and survived, while the people in Missouri didn't and paid with their lives. That raises an issue that's really the point of this discussion. The weather stations, local meteorologists, and even the National Weather Service, seem to "downplay," for lack of a better term, the dangers of severe thunderstorms. As someone who watches local severe weather coverage religiously (thanks to the internet and News On), I've noticed that there's rarely, if ever, an interruption for a severe thunderstorm warning. There's a "crawl" on the bottom or top of the screen (so Sheldon's face isn't obscured on The Big Bang Theory) giving the news about the severe thunderstorm warning. I've noticed that some stations don't even interrupt regular programming for tornadoes, but many places have, as their policy, interruptions for tornado warnings. Do you know what the #1 weather killer is? According to the National Weather Service, floods. You've no doubt heard "turn around, don't drown" when a flash flood warning is issued. But they aren't "exciting" or "sexy" like tornado coverage. Yet tornadoes were in sixth place for cause of weather-related fatalities last year, with 35 people dying. In contrast, 182 people died from the three products of severe thunderstorms: wind, lightning, and flooding rain. So weather people don't present severe thunderstorms as the serious threats that they are. The people who were outside probably thought it wasn't that big a deal. Tragically, it was that big a deal. Here's a Missouri TV station's coverage: