I was right in the middle of this mess and managed to sneek away when he was screaming at three girls (from OU I think). Of course they drove away from him while he was yelling, which made matters worse.
My take on this will probably make some of you unhappy, but what I saw was very different than what I've been reading. Who among you bothered to record the chasers hanging out the window video taping while going 85 MPH down the highway? How many bothered to tape the chasers all the way out the window
on the roof
taping while passing other vehicles? Not to mention parking on the highway, blocking traffic, using laptops while driving and running outrageously blinding lightbars down the road. You say the law enforcement was out of control, I agree but so were many chasers. It was nothing short of lunatic fringe north of Silverton.
Anytime an emergency vehicle comes up on you the rule is pull over because they have the right of way. It does not matter if they are pulling you over or not, that light and siren gives them that right. Law enforcement does not like crowds or what they call mobs. There were just too many chasers breaking too many laws and they came unglued and in response acted irresponsibally themselves. The same thing happened in SW Kansas and eastern Colorado years ago. At one time in the 80's Colorado law enforecment was blocking chasers from the storms. It's ok to protect yourself by taping the incident, but we were a part of a larger group that was mostly out of control.
What can we do in these situations? One thing is to not drive to the anticipated "
storm of the day" where everyone else will be. Kansas was not crowded and the torndoes were bigger, consider other options. Believe me I know shi##y deals while chasing, I was screamed at on May 3rd 1999 while taping two tornados, a giant stovepipe and a wedge. I was off the road completely in a field but told to cease immediately and leave the scene, or be arrested. I was also told to
drive away from the storm. There was no damage where I was, but that didn't matter.
I personally may take some sort of action against the
blinding lightbars.
There were times I could not see on the way to McLean. We should not be doing that to each other.
Gene Moore