I'm Pro-Tornado and you should be too! (read at your own risk)

[Shane Adams]

Passion, excitement, and enthusiasm are difficult emotions to convey and understand outside of the person experiencing them. I've not had to deal with the "do you root for destruction?" question much at all, but when I have been faced with it, I simply reply "are people who watch the news the same way?" If anything involves death and doom, it's news.

That usually stops the argument

 

[Bob Hartig]

Humans are complex creatures, and in the face of something as intense as a tornado, we're prone to have multiple responses jostling around inside us simultaneously. I've never witnessed a tornado hitting a home or a community--at least, not by daylight when I could actually see what was going on. I do, however, have friends who lost loved ones in tornadoes. If I saw one striking a neighborhood, I'm certain my primary gut response would be one of fear and grave concern for the lives being impacted at that moment. I guarantee I would be praying. But mingled with this reaction would be, I think, a sense of awe, and of fascination, and of unreality. And while it would be a far cry from "rooting for the tornado," I can't imagine not having some kind of Holy Freakin' Wow!!! reaction.

Tornadoes are just natural phenomena. But, depending on how we're wired as individuals, we assign them an array of values. We may see them as: awe-inspiring, terrifying, moving sculptures, fascinating, beautiful, incredible, death-dealing, something to seek, something to flee...the list goes on. Shake all that up and put it in different chasers with different life experiences and levels of maturity, then confront those chasers with something like Jarrell, Texas, and you're bound to get an array of reactions.

But that's not just true of storm chasers. Look at some of the home videos taken by people whose property, lives, and loved ones were in imminent danger and you'll see the same phenomenon. It's why the videos even exist; the fascination factor is just that powerful. In a segment from one of Grazulis's Tornado Video Classics series, one guy continues to film after getting struck by lightning! Another keeps filming as his neighborhood disintegrates around him and his own home begins to come apart.

Our interests and passions in life are God-given with a purpose. If it weren't for people who had a passion for tornadoes (or any natural disaster), would we have all of the data and knowledge that we have today? Would we ever have any hope of learning more? Would we have SPC outlooks? Watches, warnings and damage surveys? Would even a fraction of the tornadoes that occur today be reported and warned if it weren't for the passion of chasers?

Well said. I've got a long way to go in my personal learning curve, but when it comes to the passion...well, isn't that what makes life worth living and what drives the unique contributions God created each of us to make? No need to justify it. Just live it.

 

[Melissa Moon]

Passion, excitement, and enthusiasm are difficult emotions to convey and understand outside of the person experiencing them. I've not had to deal with the "do you root for destruction?" question much at all, but when I have been faced with it, I simply reply "are people who watch the news the same way?" If anything involves death and doom, it's news.

That usually stops the argument

Shane, I think you make a very good point. It seems like the media likes to bank on death and destruction. And the reason they continue to show it is because they are getting good ratings whenthey show that kind of stuff so people obviously watch it.

Personally, I wish that tornados would not destroy things and I feel awful when I see things hit. but I know that something getting hit is inevitable.

 

[Bart_Comstock]

As a chaser I to am normally awe struck by the power that a tornado can cause, having seen some of it first hand my self, HOWEVER I never want to see a tornado barrel into a house or city where lives or lively hoods may be at stake. I chase first and foremost to help out via reporting what I see if it warrants a report. I don’t mean I call in that it is raining hard or the storm is rumbling, I am talking about larger hail, wind and tornadic events. After a tornado has hit an area and I am no longer able to give chase to it I will turn around and either dawn my Red Cross vest and coordinate with the local branch and help open a shelter, or drive to scene and offer assistance as first emergency responder. I also have some basic search and rescue training with the Civil Air Patrol.

Protecting lives or at leaqst helping others comes first priority to me, whether that comes in the form of calling in a tornado and helping the nws throw out a tor warning, or via direct involvement. If I were to see a house get hit and it is far enough out that emergency vehicles will take a bit of time to get there I will pull over and confirm that everyone is ok before attempting to get back on the road after the tornado again. I know I have had numerous people come up to me and thank me being out in the field and reporting the tornado as well as stopping to help. I have even had one person on March 12th of last year tell me they thought we just chased for the sport of it and were glad they were wrong. I know that tornadoes and destruction go hand in hand, and that it is not always avoidable, but I like to think that if I am going to bare whiteness to it that I want to be able to do everything in my power to at least help prevent the death of a person.

Sure, I cheer and give my self a high five with ever touchdown I see (unless it touches down on a non-abandoned structure) and love to see trees and old decaying, and non used structures get obliterated, but I NEVER want to see a tornado ruin someone's lives. I see that a lot of you mention that it is the younger chasers that typical are the ones who do speed and cheer on tornadoes as they cause pain to others but know that it is not all of the younger ones.

I know I have not had a lot of experiences in my 19 years of life as some of you had that have changed your perspective on how you see things, but I think I have had at the very least one to many to have any morbid thought when it concerns the loss of a life. I fear not death and have made my peace with God and know that when my time comes I will be ready, but until that time comes I would like to spend my time here on this dust ball knowing that I am not just doing something as a hobby but also because it benefits others in a positive way.

And to be clear, I see nothing wrong with hooting and hollering about that one you just drove for hours to possible see, but when lives are threatened show some respect. Even on YouTube I have had a guy tell me that...

Don't come on here and preach to me, pal. Have you never watched chaser videos before? All you hear is, "beautiful! Classic wedge, awesome!" Even one guy yells out "thank you, God!" Are you going to march up to THEM (who are a little older & more seasoned at chasing than a 19 year-old anal-retentive big shot) and start bitching? Didn't think so.

After I said there is nothing bad ass about what the Andover tornado did to the people who lost their lives in response to his description. To many people think we do it just for the spot and revel in glee as people loose everything and sometimes even their life.

Even if you do yourself take enjoyment in watching that unfold please, out of respect for the rest of the chasing community, don’t show it in your videos.

 

[David Drummond]

Shane, I think you make a very good point. It seems like the media likes to bank on death and destruction. And the reason they continue to show it is because they are getting good ratings whenthey show that kind of stuff so people obviously watch it.

You hit the nail on the head right there. People as a majority in general want to witness death and destruction, whether the admit it or not, or even realize it. You need to go no farther than the coverage big events get, such as 9/11 and Katrina. If people didn't stay glued to their TVs when they went wall to wall for hours on end, they wouldn't do it. It's just not profitable. In the end, wild weather is entertainment for the media to serve to viewers, and the viewers want entertainment. It's more true in some markets than others, but most definitely in the plains states.

Remember as well, entertainment is not necessarily enjoyment. When is the last time one of you cried or was horrified at something you saw in a movie, yet you were still entertained?

Watching a tornado do it's thing is quite possibly one of the most humbling experiences a human can have. As a result, a plethora of emotions run the gamut during the event. This is even more true with storm chasers in general who quite possible just spent untold hours, drove hundreds of thousands of miles and spent who knows how much money just to see one.

But, as a cautionary note, if your gonna give or sell your video outside your own viewing, take a moment to edit the audio out if it's incriminating. Just about all cameras now you can do that on the camera even. Then it shouldn't be an issue.

 

[Jason A.C. Brock]

I think its jsut a good idea to keep your voice down while filiming a tornado. Especially when others who have spent their hard earned chas and hours to get to a storm and film it ge their video ruined by some distant yahoo yelling....oh yeah babY! ITS a tornado! Yeah baby! Look at that tornado....Yeah we know its a tornado and we can see it....so shut the hell up so I can video and tape the thing and actually enjoy the sounds and look of the storm.....not the sounds of your dumb a$$ yelling over my audio after I drove 6 hours to get there. You can yell your manly yell in front of the ladies later watching the video at home.