Chasers Stuck in the mud in SD

[Danny Neal]

This year's chase season is starting to look like one of the video out-take shows where people put their hands in alligator's mouths and get bit. Hopefully, next year people will have learned something and it won't progress to the "Jackass" level of Tv show.

Are you implying we intentionally put ourselves in that situation? If so then I only see one "Jackass" here....

 

[Jay McCoy]

Most police cares are equipped with dash cams are that are automatically activated when running code3. Hopefully that dashcam caught that idiot chaser and they can nail his dumb @ss. Its guys like that that are hurting all of chasing with bad publicity and bad opinions of us to LEO's. Guy had some balls passing a cop going that fast.

Glad you guys are ok. if the farmer did plow over the road then he is actually financially responsible not you guys. Bill him for the tow..lol

 

[Matthew K. Hartman]

That's not true, Jay... Actually, if it's private property, the farmer can do whatever he pleases. He can leave those cars there for as long as he wants and can be as pissed as he wants to be.

Point is here, that people need to pay attention to where they're going and where their escape routes are. If you're well planned and safety minded, you won't put yourself in the situation in the first place, of where you need to quickly ditch off a storm onto a dirt road.

Every chaser should know by now that dirt roads and a wet environment are bad news and should be avoided. My policy, if a road looks questionable on the Delorme or map, I don't take the chance.

There were a couple of roads that were either in very bad shape or were closed that my partner and I came across while out last evening and we both decided to back-track and go the safe-route. It probably cost us a combined 30-40 minutes and maybe even cost us a view of the wedge, but we're not sitting in a field in 20 inches of mud either.

Being upset at the farmer is the wrong direction to be taking out your frustrations. What did he do wrong here? Plant his field and try to make a yield? Sorry, folks, that's what a farmer does.

 

[Logan Karsten]

Yeah, I have to agree with Matt. I can understand why the farmer is pissed. That's how he makes money and puts food on the table, and the chasers chose to go down that road to chase that tornado, nobody made them. It's unfortunate that these chasers went down a road that they were unaware ended. However, I can understand why that farmer is upset and angry.

 

[Elaine Spencer]

I can understand why the farmer is pissed. That's how he makes money and puts food on the table, and the chasers chose to go down that road to chase that tornado, nobody made them. It's unfortunate that these chasers went down a road that they were unaware ended. However, I can understand why that farmer is upset and angry.

Also, did the farmer suffer any damage from the tornado (or straight-line winds or hail accompanying the storm) that the chasers were trying to escape from? If he did, or any of his neighbors did, that also might explain his hostility to the chasers.

 

[Mike Kovalchick]

Just got to the hotel now, its nearly 6am.

The police did take all of our information. Apparently it was a wheat crop and not grass like I was originally told. I can understand why the guy is upset. While talking with one of the officers he said he was heading to the scene of an accident with his lights on and he was passed by a chaser [the cop said he was going 80 so the chaser was doing 90+] so he already had a tainted view.

Amidst all the chaos I was told the farmer cultivated over that portion of the road when he wasn't supposed to. Whether or not that is true I don't yet know. I mean there was no gate, no signs...no nothing....just a dirt road and then WHAM! Field.

Many of our vehicles are still there, the farmer doesn't seem to want to pull anyone out. If the area can dry out we should be able to drive ourselves out no problem.

Id like to thank Bart Comstock for going way out of his way to come to our aid. He really went above and beyond, making multiple trips back and forth to Aberdeen to shuttle us back to hotel rooms he booked for us.

So for some the situation isn't over yet, hopefully we can get our vehicles free later.

Ditto for me regarding Bart and his part in the rescue. It is amazing how some people just rise to the occasion to lend a hand when most needed!

I believe the whole incident was very unfortunate. Once down that road, we were effectively trapped by a gauntlet of tornadoes of various shapes and sizes. (I have I think a pic of at least 3 tornadoes on the ground at the same time moving next to the road.) We made one attempt to back track only to be stopped by other on-coming chasers and a sudden funnel appearing out of the rain almost on top of us. When we came to the edge of the field..it was either bail out of the vehicles and run for cover(I spotted a large wall of huge boulders a 100 yards away that I contemplated getting behind) or attempt to get out of harms way in the vehicles.(As it turned out-it was just pure luck running from the tubes as individual funnels/suction vortices weaved in and out among the vehicles scattered across the field.) I think we made the right call. The err in judgement probably came earlier; might have been better to just let that beast alone-that storm meant business and that was clear right at the get go.

 

[Andy Jackson]

hairy situation

I experienced the same thing earlier on, luckily I could back track. I'm glad you guys didn't get hit by the tornado.

The one thing to remember is this situation is why people have car insurance. Whether you were chasing, hunting, etc... This stuff happens out there. It doesn't seem like there was a substantial amount of crop damage so offer something out of your pocket if you don't want to go through insurance.

 

[Matthew K. Hartman]

I wasn't there Elaine, but I'll bet the reason that the farmer was angered wasn't for the fact that they were chasers. Most likely, it was about the number of people that were on his property and were stuck.

You can look at it this way... Would you be upset if you walked out of your house and found 20 strange cars parked on your back yard?

I know I would, at least, question where the party was at!

Also, did the farmer suffer any damage from the tornado (or straight-line winds or hail accompanying the storm) that the chasers were trying to escape from? If he did, or any of his neighbors did, that also might explain his hostility to the chasers.

 

[joel ewing]

Stuck in the mud

I come from a long line of Nebraska farmers. As soon as I read that the farmer wanted let everybody sit in the field until Monday, I knew what he was up to. He's going to talk to his attorney first.
If Reed is one of them stuck and this farmer realizes who he is....I'll bet there will be a lawsuit on the near horizon.

 

[Jesse Risley]

This "road to nowhere" mapping inconsistency is an issue for me on almost an annual basis; it happened to me twice last year (in TX and in NE). It's not uncommon for mapping software to show a continuous public right-of-way that would appear to be the perfect shortcut to get one back on the storm, yet the road ends up coming to a dead end in the middle of some ranch.

I guess I've been fortunate that both times I did not get stuck and each time the property owner had a cordial exchange with me about the obvious misunderstanding, but realistically that's not always going to happen. Seeing as how this was not intentional or planned, as long as everyone was cordial and respectful, which it sounds like they were, it should be a simple matter of dealing the whole affair privately amongst all of the parties involved.

 

[Andrew Stoller]

I come from a long line of Nebraska farmers. As soon as I read that the farmer wanted let everybody sit in the field until Monday, I knew what he was up to. He's going to talk to his attorney first.
If Reed is one of them stuck and this farmer realizes who he is....I'll bet there will be a lawsuit on the near horizon.

What's he going to sue for? A few damaged wheat stocks?

 

[Patrick Martin]

What's he going to sue for? A few damaged wheat stocks?

Well let's see, vandalism, loss of revenue, trespassing, to name a few. Just because it's not criminal does not mean he can't pursue a civil matter. I'm sure to the farmer as he looks at his field he's thinking about the money he will lose b/c of crops he can't harvest. It's not as trivial as you might think.

I'm glad that all involved were ok, and it's obvious that it was not people's intent to cause any harm to this person. I'm really hoping this can all be worked out privately and with minimal cost to all involved.

 

[ccrosbie]

I am glad that no one got hurt. Speaking from experience when getting stuck in a ditch after placing the "dillo-cam" ahead of a large tornado in 1997 I know how freaked out everyone must have been.

However, I can't feel totally bad that you all got stuck. IMO, when playing with fire, you have to assume you might get burned once in a while.

Casey

 

[Andrew Stoller]

I'm not saying it's trivial, but when you sue in civil court, it's to recuperate damages. How much damage was caused by some trucks being stuck in a wheat field?

Vandalism and trespassing are criminal matters, and it appears those won't be followed by local law enforcement.

Me thinks that Murphy's law had them end up in some old crotchety farmers field, and he's just being a hard ass!

 

[Rob Herman]

As soon as I read that the farmer wanted let everybody sit in the field until Monday...

The farmer might of wanted to give the field a chance to dry out before going in to remove the vehicles, thus not tearing the field up anymore then it was or risk getting stuck in it himself. Not only is part of his crop destroyed the farmers going to have to repair all those ruts, which will result in more of his crop being destroyed.