People STILL not heeding warnings

[Hannah.Taylor]

If this isn't the right location for this, feel free to move it to the appropriate venue.

Last week when Moore, OK was once again under the gun, along with most of the OKC/Moore metropolitan area, I noticed several comments just like this one. Only saved one, but there were so many of these on the OKC news fb like pages. KOCO, KFOR and KWTV fb like pages.

Sirens are going off and now we have multiple people asking "Why are the sirens going off"? or "The sirens are going off here, what's going on?"

I just don't understand this. Is this people being naive? Is social media dumbing people down?

The first thing that comes to mind when I hear a siren is:

1.) Check the sky
a). is it sunny out?
i) yes - (skip Steps 2 and 3. Proceed to Step 4).
ii) no - (proceed to Step 2).

2.) check the radar
3.) turn on the weather radio/ local news/ local radio
4.) ask myself if it's Wednesday (or whatever day is test day in said area)?

But apparently, for people, common sense is no longer common.

 

[Drew Terril]

Yukon tests their sirens on Saturdays at noon, so them going off any other time should make people wonder what's going on. I think what it boils down to is people can't be troubled to pay attention to what's going on around them. You see it on the highway (and all these "driver's aids" on new cars have only made it worse), and just about everywhere else where you encounter the rest of society. They just can't stand to be inconvenienced.

 

[Caleb Grunzke]

Some TV meteorologists in Tulsa, OK are now calling tornado warnings "tornado emergencies" in a hope that people take more action when a tornado is imminent. While stronger wording usually gets the point across, I horribly disagree with this practice as the difference between a tornado warning and tornado emergency is significant. I think Drew makes a good argument that people can't be inconvenienced and unless there is a picture or video of a tornado heading for them, they won't listen. Darwinism will start to take over soon and kill off the idiots so there's always a plus side...

 

[Joey Ketcham]

If this isn't the right location for this, feel free to move it to the appropriate venue.

Last week when Moore, OK was once again under the gun, along with most of the OKC/Moore metropolitan area, I noticed several comments just like this one. Only saved one, but there were so many of these on the OKC news fb like pages. KOCO, KFOR and KWTV fb like pages.

Sirens are going off and now we have multiple people asking "Why are the sirens going off"? or "The sirens are going off here, what's going on?"

I just don't understand this. Is this people being naive? Is social media dumbing people down?

The first thing that comes to mind when I hear a siren is:

1.) Check the sky
a). is it sunny out?
i) yes - (skip Steps 2 and 3. Proceed to Step 4).
ii) no - (proceed to Step 2).

2.) check the radar
3.) turn on the weather radio/ local news/ local radio
4.) ask myself if it's Wednesday (or whatever day is test day in said area)?

But apparently, for people, common sense is no longer common.

Unfortunately, and as much as I hate to see it, a lot of people are just ignorant when it comes to severe weather. Even with sirens going off, unless someone comes and tells them a tornado is heading for them, they won't know otherwise because they have no knowledge of how to check for such information on their own.

 

[rdale]

Hannah - I think you missed the validity of the question... The post is from Yukon. There were no tornado warnings for Yukon last week. The two issued for Canadian Co were well to the southeast and not moving anywhere near Yukon. So the sirens should NOT have been sounding. This isn't the public "not heeding warnings" - this is a failure of the alerting system.

 

[Sean Ramsey]

Sirens were going off in Yukon/West OKC for tornado warnings in Moore about a month back, and then again for a good portion of the day last week when the storms were more towards I-44 further to the south. I know this because my wife sat through them, but she understood where the storms were and their general direction so she didn't choose to take shelter. So rdale is correct, the question in your example was a valid question.

This doesn't mean everyone is paying attention though even with everything this area has been through the last few years. I think you're going to get a percentage of the population who just isn't tuned in no matter what you do.

 

[Hannah.Taylor]

Like I said, there were plenty others from other areas asking why the sirens were going off in their location. This was just the example I used.

 

[rdale]

I agree - but the premise of your subject ("not heeding warnings") is wrong. There were no warnings to heed People asking why the siren sounded when there is no warning should be expected. This happens repeatedly in the OKC area and their EM even came out and told people that sirens don't mean there is a warning and take shelter - but to tune in to local radio/TV and determine if you should take shelter. That's where the common sense factor is missing...

 

[Hannah.Taylor]

I agree - but the premise of your subject ("not heeding warnings") is wrong. There were no warnings to heed People asking why the siren sounded when there is no warning should be expected. This happens repeatedly in the OKC area and their EM even came out and told people that sirens don't mean there is a warning and take shelter - but to tune in to local radio/TV and determine if you should take shelter. That's where the common sense factor is missing...

obviously, you don't understand. On May 6th (this is the date in question). There were in fact warnings to heed in OKC, Moore and Norman, Newcastle, Bridge Creek. People in those communities were posting to the FB like pages of local news agencies asking why the sirens were going off. I understand the instance I used was in Yukon, but that was NOT the only warning.

If people were heeding the warnings, they wouldn't be on FB asking why are the sirens going off.

 

[rdale]

Ahh - I was just going on what you posted, I did not track what Facebook posts you saw There were also several times when a warning only included part of OKC yet the entire city's siren network was activated. It seems the EMs there are doing the exact thing that hurt Joplin residents.