Chasers Stuck in the mud in SD

[Mike Kovalchick]

I hate to keep beating a dead-horse here, Adam, but it sure didn't seem you were too concerned about driving through the field in your video. In fact, I heard laughing when you told your camera-man/chase partner that you were driving through a field, rather than a road. You didn't seem all that concerned for your safety (at that time), either, for that matter. Unless, you decided to remove that portion in your editing.

Speaking of which, why is the video no longer on YouTube? If anything, it could be used as an educational piece for what not to do. New chasers may benefit from that...

I went through that video carefully. During the "laughing" part when they were filming the drill bit type tornado-they were in fact still on the road despite a comment to the contrary although it was getting to a point of starting to degrade. Further into the video where you see several vehicles together parked(including my vehicle), then some vehicles going past and turning hard right-that is where the road actually ended and the fiasco into the field began. We were parked there at that moment trying to decide whether to get out of the vehicle and head for the nearest ditch or not. There was no particuarly good places to hide. I wanted to do a 100 yard dash to hide behind a large pile of boulders but it was a bit too far to run on foot in all that wind.

 

[Kris Hair]

I've said it several time before, and I'll say it again... Everyone's a critic. It's always easy to tell someone what you "would have done" from the comfort of your couch.

I can't help but wonder on reading this if Vortex2 had been out this day, how many more cars would have been in that very same pasture trying to deploy probes in the path of the tornado.

The road on map was a valid road... It wasn't there when they got there. Stuff happens, they made right on it. End of story.

 

[Justin Turcotte]

I've said it several time before, and I'll say it again... Everyone's a critic. It's always easy to tell someone what you "would have done" from the comfort of your couch.

I can't help but wonder on reading this if Vortex2 had been out this day, how many more cars would have been in that very same pasture trying to deploy probes in the path of the tornado.

The road on map was a valid road... It wasn't there when they got there. Stuff happens, they made right on it. End of story.

Well stated Kris. I do understand where Mr. Hartman is coming from and that is a chaser may want to leave himself a little more room for error. There is always the possibility the road you intend to escape on does not exist, is closed, blocked, etc. I'm pretty sure the chasers involved here learned well from the experience. We are all going to make a mistake at some point.

 

[Bart_Comstock]

I will not take the time to read over this whole thread as I have a forecast to do and I am a VERY lazy person in the morning.

That said, this storm was a very VERY extra special case. It did not behave like any other storm I have ever seen. If you were not north of Hwy12 you really can't speak much on the matter imho. This was not a simple ride along next to a meso and watch it cycle and produce type storm. There was a large tornado cyclone that was near 4-6miles wide. The storm took almost no time at all to cycle and went totally insane to quickly to respond. The tornado cyclone widened to is broad size very quickly. I liken it to a amoeba that spreads and engulfs its prey. At one point we had at least 4 tornadoes on the ground that were spread apart and all moving in different directions. The road that was taken shows up on pretty much ever map as it going through and the Deputy even told us that if this had happened last year we could have continued down that road all the way to Aberdine. This storm may have caught many of us chasers with our pants down but we didn't pull them down ourselves. Going south on 9 wasn't an option with the intense RFD. Backtracking wasn't an option with the number of tornadoes on or near the road. I myself even started down 130 to get out of the way of the RFD. When Scott Bennett was on the radio shouting not to go down the road because he was stuck, I was on the opposite side of the tornado yelling for them all to run. There was no minimum maintenance sign and no gates and no dead end signage. The road also rolls up and over a few small hills so there was no way to see that the road ended until it was too late. I come into the thread as a neutral party who was there and witnessed this all unfold and really these guys were in a safe position until the storm grew and turned and did things I have never seen a supercell do before. The farmer has at least 50000acers of land and the area damaged by the cars was about 1 acre at the most. The farmer and cop was the one who told me about the size of the land, this is not an estimate. Standing in the field where these guys were and looking to the north you can see a large grove of delimbed and mangled trees and a destroyed barn (it was not in use before the storm and had been abandond) that the wedge had slammed. These chasers who were stuck are lucky to be alive and their quick action to take the southern escape into the field was absolutely the only way to make it out of this unfortunate circumstance. I am sure most if not all of the critics on here would have don the same thing in the same situation.

Please excuse my bad grammar as I said, I'm lazy in the AM and I am not going to take the time to make proper paragraphs.

 

[Bart_Comstock]

I hate to keep beating a dead-horse here, Adam, but it sure didn't seem you were too concerned about driving through the field in your video. In fact, I heard laughing when you told your camera-man/chase partner that you were driving through a field, rather than a road. You didn't seem all that concerned for your safety (at that time), either, for that matter. Unless, you decided to remove that portion in your editing.

Speaking of which, why is the video no longer on YouTube? If anything, it could be used as an educational piece for what not to do. New chasers may benefit from that...

Matt, would you please shut up? Are you simply dragging this out just to keep getting a reaction? People react in funny ways to things. I tend to grin and laugh when I am in trouble and I don't do it because I find the situation funny. What history do you have actually chasing in the field? I can assure you that these guys weren't playing "Twister" and that each one of them did indeed not enjoy the situation. I have been right there with each of these guys since the moment after the storm passed and each of them do not wish this had happened or had fun getting nearly killed. They may have been a little excited in the video but really don't make accusations of whether or not they were having fun doing it if you weren't there to personal see this unfold or speak to them. I'm sure you have done anything stupid before or made a mistake and later regretted it. Nobody is perfect in this world so stop trying to beat perfection into others. What gives you the right to cast the stone? None of these guys were newbies and none of them would have intentionally put themselves in this situation due to a lack of knowledge or respect for the storm.

If you want someone to rail why not direct your anger to the jackass that was passing cops or the tour company that had all their guests on the side of a street with their tripods out on the pavement? Hell why not grill fools like me that do get to close on purpose. These guys made a mistake but they paid their dews (literally) and learned their lesson. There is no reason to drag this out further. I think it is near time to lock this thread and just put closure on this situation.

 

[John Begler]

Do you really want to go there? Do you know how many times over the years I've seen storm spotters who backed up and parked on someone's private property? Not in a driveway, but into a field. The number of storm spotters I've seen sitting on private property is HIGHER than the number of chasers I've seen doing that. Fact is, storm chasers tend to stick to the main roads in order to keep up with the storm, so most of the time storm chasers will park well off the road onto the shoulder for their observation. But the fact is, all of us at some point in time have driven our vehicles on someone else's property. I once saw a storm spotter, and yes I know for a fact it was a storm spotter, who had backed up into a corn field so far that he had crushed some of the planted corn.

It doesn't matter whether you're in a field, a drive way, an inlet to a field.. you're on someone's private property. So by that token, you're just as guilty as anyone else by driving onto someone's property.

I wanted to reply here in defense of spotters. I get the impression that some folks consider them to be uneducated troglodytes and just in the way of the more important chasers. I think a few key bits of information may help clear that up. To start with, the county I live in has a pretty solid group of spotters that have many years experience observing storms and reporting dangerous weather. They may not be as well educated in meteorology as folks that make a living of it or do it as a hobby, but we still know what we are doing. The majority of spotters here consist of sheriff's officers, local LEO, volunteer firemen and other emergency service personnel as well as amateur radio operators. Many of the spotters are also trained for emergency situations and are trained first responders. The county radios they carry will allow them to get the resources rolling the site of an emergency far faster than dialing 911.

A big advantage us locals have over outside chasers is we know the area well. We don't have to reply on GPS maps put together by a distant mapping company that has never set foot on the ground out here to know which roads can get us where we want to be and which roads to avoid. There are many roads out here that aren't really thru roads at all but they just dead end at a cultivated field or a pasture out in the middle of nowhere. We know these roads well because we travel them regularly thru the year. Another advantage many of us local spotters have is we know the landowners and we know whose land we can access if we need to, where we can park, where the best vantage spots are for observing the storms and what are the best escape routes. When the call goes out to activate the spotters, everyone has pre-determined locations we go to and we watch and wait. Oh sure there may be locals out rubber-necking, but in reality, isn't that what a lot of chasers are doing themsleves? I myself have no desire to go running across the countryside chasing a storm as it travels. Gas is too expensive and I don't know the roads as well. I choose to spot locally.

As far as the situation with the farmer being upset in South Dakota, I can't really blame him. Farming is an expensive venture involving a lot of time, expensive fuel and chemicals. There is no guarantee he will make his money back with a profit, there are too many variables he can't control that are weather related. Lack of rain, too much rain, hail, insects, and crop disease all play a role as well as people that speculate on the price of his crops. I hope folks take these factors into account the next time they see a field out in the middle of nowhere. That is someones livelyhood there and it's getting harder and harder for them to make a liveable income from those fields. I realize the group of chasers got themselves painted into a corner, partly because of inaccurate map data, but that wasn't the farmers fault. For the folks that called him an a$$ for acting the way he did, put yourself in his place and I think you will see it differently. If someone came onto your property without permission and tore things up, how would you feel?

 

[Bill Oosterbaan]

I might as well make my first post on storm track thanking Bart Comstock. I too was in the car with Bob Harting, Mike Kovalchick, and my brother Tom. Bart was still running folks back to their hotel 20 miles away at 7:00am the next morning. Not too many people would have been so willing to help.

Thanks Man

As for you who were not there, but yet so fast the criticize. I have been chasing storms since 1975, longer than most of you have been alive. You are the reason why this is my first post. Now that I am in my mid-fifties I have learned to get all the fact before I say anything.

 

[Adam Lucio]

I hate to keep beating a dead-horse here, Adam, but it sure didn't seem you were too concerned about driving through the field in your video. In fact, I heard laughing when you told your camera-man/chase partner that you were driving through a field, rather than a road. You didn't seem all that concerned for your safety (at that time), either, for that matter. Unless, you decided to remove that portion in your editing.

Speaking of which, why is the video no longer on YouTube? If anything, it could be used as an educational piece for what not to do. New chasers may benefit from that...

I keep repeating it because people obviously dont read the whole thread and miss that part. I cant help that other people in my car are laughing so beef that up with them.

I took the video down because some of the other chasers involved in the whole deal asked me to and i respect them thus I honored their request. The legal matter is still in progress and it will be up once the ordeal is completely over.

I could give a rats ass what the critics have to say about me...the only educational value the video has is it shows what CAN go wrong...anyone there would have done the same thing and don't try to tell me otherwise. Noone would just sit there and take the chance of getting run over by a tornado...yea you can argue the whole "dont get yourself there in the first place" but that is a moot point. You can plan ahead all you want but there will always be an unexpected curveball at some point.

 

[Skip Talbot]

I'd like to chime in here and thank Bart, Mike, and others for helping out on Saturday night. I got a call from Adam at 2:30, but I pulled off in a field an hour to the south and was feeling sick and so didn't make it up there. However, I'm glad everything is worked out now as it could have been a lot worse.

I'm also going to be cleaning out some frivolous/off topic/borderline attack posts. At 166 replies we need to keep this thread on course.

EDIT: That includes trolling, which is what some of the earlier posts appeared to be even if they were intended as "jokes."

 

[Brandon Jenkins]

Edited for deleted posts. Time for everyone to take a break and relax. I think the most important thing here is that everyone is safe and the situation has been handled.

 

[Danny Neal]

Well played Skipper. Sorry for cluttering the thread while spoon feeding others. It was definitely a hair raising situation. I definitely did not appreciate people with less experience than me trying to tell me what I should have done. But everyone has the right to their own opinion so I apologize to those respected individuals that I may have come off as a bit of a dick too. Everyone else... please, please, I encourage you to go out and chase once in a while. All I know is I don't think any of you would you be talking to Mike Umscheid about his decisions if he was chasing with us that day..... That's right he was right next to us in that field.

All I ask is people, please understand that this can happen to anyone. L.B Laforce is a relatively new chaser and he was caught. Adam and I are somewhat respected chasers and we were caught. Mike Umscheid and Jeff Petrowski are VERY respected chasers and they were caught. I know only a couple of us replied to this thread, but the magnitude of the situation was unlike any other any of us could have imagined. We owned up to our mistakes, we paid the farmer, we apologized, I mean what more do you want? The thread should remained closed.

Also an interesting thing to note. 10 years ago if the media caught hold of this the headline would have been "Chasers bail south into field; save their lives" I got word FOX News was poking around for information about how "chasers destroyed crops while getting too close to tornado" ..... sad, really.

 

[Bart_Comstock]

FYI: Just to set the record straight, I had someone mention to me they were told that I was charging the chasers who were stuck for rides to and from town. This is not true, I did not charge for anything. I just wanted to clear that up before a rumor started to spread.

 

[David Schuttler]

I just wonder how all this might have read if it was V2 or the TIV crew involved....... Oh well

 

[Mike Moore]

I just wonder how all this might have read if it was V2 or the TIV crew involved....... Oh well

LOL... the thread would have been titled "Sean Casey kills crops, destroys field and leaves farmer for dead."

 

[Scott Bennett]

I just wonder how all this might have read if it was V2 or the TIV crew involved....... Oh well

And it would have read that way had the Dominator not got stuck trying to make it up this EXACT road. The road was supposed to be 3 miles long, it was 2 miles long in reality.