TORNADO ALLEY
(…it’s Mother Nature’s very own…and she’s a bitchin’ bowler)

It seem at this time every year the southern plains part of the country gets hit with swarms of tornadoes, including monsters like the one that just hit Moore, Oklahoma (for the second time).

They call that area – Tornado Alley – and with good reason because it seems to be Mother Nature’s very own…and she’s a bitchin’ bowler…always making lots of strikes…and that alley of hers stretches from the Texas panhandle, across Oklahoma, all the way up to Iowa and even over into Tennessee and Illinois (sometimes). Missouri lucks out for the most part, mainly because its Ozark plateau splits that alley east and west of it, so only some of the edges of the state down near Joplin, and over by the Boot Heel get hit now and then.

The devastations that these hissy fits of Mother Nature cause are terrible indeed, both in lives lost and towns and property destroyed. You would think, therefore, that folks who live along that “alley way” would have learned by now that some things need to be changed in the way structures are rebuilt, and what protective measures should be taken, as the price of living in that kind of environment.  

For one thing the extreme wind velocities monster tornadoes can crank up turn any stick-built structures into houses of cards. Time after time, we see that the first thing those winds and their suction do is rip the roofs right off of them, and with the roof gone, those structures’ walls tend to collapse…mostly inward, on top of any people huddled inside. It’s time now to reconsider how such structures should be rebuilt, perhaps considering the use of precast concrete roofs and even walls for that purpose instead. The technology for that kind of construction has reached state of the art, and may even be less costly besides. At the very least, either some kind of storm cellar with an escape tunnel and exit well clear of the footprint area of a building, or, a purpose built walk-in “safe” big enough to give refuge for a family and its pets, sufficiently equipped with food, water, external communications, and an air venting means. It also goes without saying, of course, that more effective ways and means of early warning need to be researched and put in place. While we must sympathize with all those who have been victims of such events, and do whatever possible to help them rebuild their lives, we should keep such things in mind as we do so.

We humans have a terrible habit of doing the same things over and over again, regardless of the fact that we’ll probably be clobbered again in the same way as before. As the saying goes…doing the same thing over and over again, while expecting different results is insanity…and if you live inTornado Alley…insanity may just get you killed…the next time.

CENTURION