Cloud 9 Tour Van Incident 5/4/22

[Brian OConnell]

If they didn't learn from El Reno when three of the best were killed by a left mover, they sure as hell ain't going to learn from reading their survival story and the attention it brought them.

After El Reno there was lots of misinformation in the media, it was portrayed as a storm that was so freakishly unusual it killed experts who did not take risks, despite the face that there have been plenty of other wedges that change speed size and direction, and those killed were making risky maneuvers (no disrespect to anyone killed, some of them were great researchers, I'm just trying to point out that the lesson that should be learned from their deaths is "beware of maneuvers that may put you in the path of a tornado without you realizing, and unpredictable tornado behavior" and not "that one tornado was so weird there was no way to avoid it, but I can assume that will never happen to me")

 

[JamesCaruso]

After El Reno there was lots of misinformation in the media, it was portrayed as a storm that was so freakishly unusual it killed experts who did not take risks, despite the face that there have been plenty of other wedges that change speed size and direction, and those killed were making risky maneuvers (no disrespect to anyone killed, some of them were great researchers, I'm just trying to point out that the lesson that should be learned from their deaths is "beware of maneuvers that may put you in the path of a tornado without you realizing, and unpredictable tornado behavior" and not "that one tornado was so weird there was no way to avoid it, but I can assume that will never happen to me")

Agreed, Tim Samaras and team specifically tried to get as close as possible to deploy probes, so they did take risks, but in the media narrative their expert level of knowledge still made it highly extraordinary that this could happen; and it never had happened previously… The problem is that now we have chasers trying to get that close not for research but for adrenaline and fame, mostly without the experience and knowledge that Tim, Paul and Carl had…

I think the extraordinary nature of El Reno was not so much the motion, but the sudden expansion in size, and the fact that the whole meso essentially became the tornado… what would normally be viewed as the broader circulation wrapping rain around the tornado, was itself at tornadic windspeeds… As Dan Robinson described it, “I could see that the rain curtains were moving at tornadic speeds and were actually inside of/part of the tornado, not just the 'benign' outside rain wrap.” The parameters were so high-end that day, and there’s a bias toward assuming a similar storm evolution won’t happen on a more “normal” chase day.

Tons of great insights on El Reno here 2013-05-31 EVENT: KS, OK, MO, IL

 

[Warren Faidley]

I'm always amazed at the footage people post online. As some of you know, my wife is an attorney who previously worked for a major insurance company. If you are involved in a serious accident while chasing, the first thing attorneys do is gather extensive information off social media. There are individuals and companies that specialize in gathering data. A lot of them are ex-intelligence officers. It will blow your mind what they find, even if you thought you deleted all the bad stuff. Some very well-know chasers have a file of negligent behavior that would fill a 1TB drive. I'm surprised sponsors risk promoting them, given their history and the potential liability. TWC learned the hard way and have avoiding chasing since the last disaster.

 

[Tony Laubach]

I'm always amazed at the footage people post online. As some of you know, my wife is an attorney who previously worked for a major insurance company. If you are involved in a serious accident while chasing, the first thing attorneys do is gather extensive information off social media. There are individuals and companies that specialize in gathering data. A lot of them are ex-intelligence officers. It will blow your mind what they find, even if you thought you deleted all the bad stuff. Some very well-know chasers have a file of negligent behavior that would fill a 1TB drive. I'm surprised sponsors risk promoting them, given their history and the potential liability. TWC learned the hard way and have avoiding chasing since the last disaster.

I just wonder how much of that ever gets beyond "hey, look what this moron did"... there are literally SO MANY INSTANCES, even as recently as whats-his-nuts in Iowa who not only posted his incredibly idiotic driving, but put his holyness up on pedestals claiming how he was the best chaser ever CITING that insanity. That is just one of countless instances that appear online. But what is really happening to these guys?

Answer: Swarms of followers, increased attention, more clicks, better video sales, and sponsorships, paying gigs.

Not Answer: Tickets, repercussions of any kind, banned from chasing, driver's license revoked, arrested, fined, severely injured or killed.

Unfortunately the only time we get an acceptable outcome to these things is when someone is killed. And as we've CLEARLY been seeing, even that isn't enough to tame the beast. The problem is there are no consequences to this? And factor in social media, where hordes of enablers are condoning this reckless behavior, which just further feeds the beast. Why should they behave? What incentive do they get? Less clicks? Less followers? Less video sales? Plenty of veteran chasers like myself out there who have some incredible work put out there that will never see the levels of "attention" because it lacks the, whatever the hell you want to call it, that garners that reaction. I just saw a recommended post in my YouTube feed that's thumbnail was an idiot kid hanging out the window of a moving car pointing at a tornado behind him with the most idiotic screaming expression on his face.

It was 244K views in 9 days... double what my Pilger video has had in almost 8 years.

And you know exactly why LOL