County Officials Critical of Storm Chasers

[Jesse Risley]

I don't know about the veracity of those statements, but some of the roads in C and S KS on Saturday were pretty clogged, but never completely blocked for long periods of time. As always, there were a few brazenly asinine driving moves that could have caused accidents - e.g., pulling right out in front of oncoming traffic, parking in the road, doing u-turns in the road in front of oncoming traffic, passing 2-3 vehicles in no passing zones on hills, etc.

However, Saturday was the first time I've heard EMA agencies and fire departments, over the scanner, asking for help from the highway patrol due to "blocked roadways" impeding emergency personnel, namely SW of Wichita. With that having been said, I never actually saw anyone physically blocking emergency vehicles from getting where they need to be, though I'm sure response times would have been slowed due to the very high traffic volumes on two-lane county and state highways.

As far as liberally ticketing storm chasers, that's supposedly been happening, anecdotally speaking, for several years, depending on the individual officer.

What I did see more of on SAT, which I haven't seen as much of in past years, were local gawkers just joining the convoy, out following chasers.

 

[Sean Ramsey]

I would not to like the government to give it a try. Selective enforcement of banning cars from the road in an area with an active tornado warning, Getting a court to subpena spotter network logs and enforcing any violated traffic laws. More to that point is I don't want to see a reason for them to come up with a law and a good faith effort by the chaser community to regulated them selves will go a long ways to preventing them for finding a reason to pass laws forcing regulation or banning.

But if most people aren't really chasers, just either locals or people who hop in the car and drive an hour or two to see tornadoes on better than average chance days then no amount of documentation would be of any use. If I remember correctly there are a few places on the web you can find something that gives you an idea of what is expected of chasers, but for 90% of the people you see during the storms it won't apply to them.

 

[Jason Haller]

But if most people aren't really chasers, just either locals or people who hop in the car and drive an hour or two to see tornadoes on better than average chance days then no amount of documentation would be of any use. If I remember correctly there are a few places on the web you can find something that gives you an idea of what is expected of chasers, but for 90% of the people you see during the storms it won't apply to them.

Really I guess we can't do anything. Just don't want to see this end in a bad way. I love storm chasing too much for it to be ruined. Saturday was just crazy (and it was not all chaser, the local media was just as bad about stopping on the side of the road with there door opened to incoming traffic)

 

[Matt Gingery]

That was Sky Warn stopping traffic on I 135 near Salina, KS. I wen't around him and he slammed his fist into my window. Some of us are doing the public a favor by relaying the ground truth to these storms. I don't see what the big dealio is. Come on, Kansas, it isn't are fault your so darn chaseable!

 

[Brian Davidson]

I do want to point out that A LOT of the local emergency vehicles where unmarked, looked like chaser vehicles, and were not using their sirens. If the emergency vehicles want people to yield, then use your sirens. Otherwise people would think your a chaser. I saw one sheriff only have wig-wag lights. I also saw some chasers have wig-wags.

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

Since this is a banning chasing thread, let's add in lightbars. . Seriously though, it is hard sometimes to distinguish between a legit volunteer firefighter running lights and a chaser with a white strobe / wigwag fetish. Either chasers need to stop running traffic-mover strobes to try to illegally move traffic or more LEO and VFD need to run code 3 to let people know that they're actual emergency vehicles.

 

[Todd Renshaw]

When we're out on the roads, we're citizens just like anybody else. Nothing more. Nothing less. If we act like idiots, then we deserve a ticket. (Although law enforcement probably has better things to do during/after a tornado than issue 50 tickets.) How is anybody going to separate out the storm chasers from the citizens just stuck in the convergence and afraid to move on?

On thing that bothers me about the original post, so a retired fireman is saying all this? Was he in an emergency vehicle or was he acting as a civilian trying to help out? (Using his own car/truck.) Maybe the tour operator was being an a**. Maybe he was asked to move by a guy he felt had no authority. But who would actually block the road if there's not a legitimate reason? Seems like there's more to the story.

As for the radio calls of chasers "impeding" progress ... aren't there usually traffic jams on the outskirts of disasters and accidents? Cars are usually stuck in the way. Where's everybody supposed to go? The emergency vehicle may not have been slowed intentionally. (Although the poster implies that was so.) This was all heard over the radio, so we don't know how accurate the interpretation is.

 

[Todd Renshaw]

Make sure we search how many times this thread has come up in the last 10 years before trying to rebeat a horse that still hasn't come back to life

Can the mods create a new "Undead" section for these threads?

 

[hazelmaryjackson]

I am a bit puzzled by the comments that suggest only active firefighters are allowed to go out on firefighting and search and rescue missions. Last June I was chasing in the mid west and one place we finished up was Kiowa KS. The local firefighting team there were out on a number of fires during the time we were around the area and I know for certain that their numbers were supplemented by trained volunteers. Spent some time talking to one about it. Why shouldn't a retired firefighter be allowed to join on a search and rescue mission in the Wichita area or anyone else for that matter, as a volunteer in an emergency situation? Is there some law against it?

I don't see why the leading storm chasing tours companies would not want to sign up to a voluntary code of conduct. When I was out chasing last year, we all agreed that in the event of finding ourselves in an emergency situation we would stop chasing to help, assuming we would be allowed to of course given the comments above. And surely it should always be the case that a tour party will move on/out of the way to make way for rescue vehicles.

Anyone have any more information about this - I can't seriously imagine that a professionally led tour would take the attitude described and am reluctant to criticise out of hand.

 

[hazelmaryjackson]

I believe the police in DFW did indeed install road blocks in some areas where the tornado was scheduled to pass through in the recent outbreak.

 

[Jeff Duda]

True, this topic has come and gone repeatedly over the years, but clearly some chasers are STILL doing things to irk some of the authorities. This will probably never go away as long as new chasers continue to join in the game.

On my chases this weekend, I still saw numerous cases of other chasers not pulling all the way off the road and entering traffic without having enough room. I was even cut off by a set of chasers (look like locals) who pulled a 3-point turn right in front of me on the road without warning (they were coming from the other direction and essentially cut us off). Yes, some emergency vehicles are difficult to discern from normal chase vehicles, especially with those who use lightbars, but I don't see how any of that excuses anyone from being discourteous or breaking the law while chasing. You are not above the system when chasing. You still have to abide by the rules of the road, and if you're gonna stop, please get all the way the f--- off the road instead of making people have to stop or veer into the other lanes to avoid you.

 

[Mike Hardiman]

It's more the sheer numbers that are the problem, regardless of how people behave. If you have a line of 50+ cars in a "funeral procession" (an accurate metaphor used in the article), it is going to slow down emergency vehicles even if all the cars find a way to pull over. There's not always a car-width shoulder available, nor room for a vehicle to drive up the middle if people pull to the side. I can understand the Emergency Managers' concerns. As for the 'providing a public service' angle...there's some truth to that, but there's a Catch-22 -- you don't need 100 people calling in the same tornado that EMs are already well-aware of. Be careful you don't overestimate your importance.

As for the "2/3rds of the vehicles are locals from nearby counties" -- how do you know that for sure? What gives them any less right to be "chasing?" A perceived lack of knowledge? When you boil it all down, we're all gawkers!

 

[Todd Renshaw]

I am a bit puzzled by the comments that suggest only active firefighters are allowed to go out on firefighting and search and rescue missions. ... Why shouldn't a retired firefighter be allowed to join on a search and rescue mission in the Wichita area or anyone else for that matter, as a volunteer in an emergency situation? Is there some law against it?

What, Me?! I said no such thing. I'm only suggesting that if you take the original post at face value, it sounds (to me) that there's more to the story. Who is going to intentionally block a legitimate search-and-rescue operation?

If we picture an emergency vehicle impeded by some jerk in a tour van, then the outrage factor goes way up. If what happened was more of a misunderstanding then we've got something else. Who knows. The picture is incomplete.

 

[TrumanBoyer]

How I (try to) Avoid these Issues

Its not always the best way to get back-lighting,
but I try to stay north and east of the storm anyway,
at least until I can see the base.

I nearly always see the convergences south and/or west of the storms.

Rather than chase the storm, try to let the storm come to you....

Also, in your down time, -- study maps.

Since radio warnings are first called out by county,
get a good set of road maps (e.g. Roads of Kansas)
(14th-century paper technology requires no web connection or power source)

Highlight the county names so you can locate them in a hurry.

Identify larger towns, those that might have a large police force.

Highlight paved roads that can be used to by-pass the town,
especially those that can take you North and East of town.
Who wants to be chasing thru town anyway ??

Most of the metro areas on the plains have US routes that parallel the interstates,
so learn the ways around.

If you follow the TIV's and Doppler trucks,
and you run into a convergence,
what the hell did you expect anyway ?

Food for thought...

-T

 

[Dan GTX]

As much as I would love to be in the mid-west to catch the big storms, reading stuff like this sometimes puts me at ease to know that I'm essentially the only chaser where I'm at.