Via Facebook and Twitter from Tornado Titans-Extreme Weather and Storm Chasing (@TornadoTitans). He does a lot better job of expressing the weather community, and his own, frustration over the traffic mess during the OKC tornadoes yesterday than my 2AM tirade did.
A message from Tornado Titans co-founder Chris Sanner this morning:
"So many things to say this morning, so as the personality type I am, here's a list:
1)I was not with Brandon and Brett, thank God they are ok. Brandon has apologized for their chase decisions yesterday and I believe forgiveness should be heavy on everyone's hearts but I do think key lessons were expressly learned by many chasers yesterday. No video is worth your life and getting close carries some HUGE risks. Let that be a lesson to everyone, this is a time to learn from other's mistakes to be sure.
2)I was 1.5-2 miles south and west of the tornado at all times yesterday and when it took it's southern jog I bailed south. We got blasted with the extremely strong RFD for a brief time and that in and of itself was an incredibly dangerous situation. I don't regret any personal chasing decisions but the combination of the Canadian River, erratic storm motions and....
3)...the fact OKC evacuated south made chasing impossible yesterday. I'm not sure what made KFOR think this was a good idea to recommend but I'm not going to be nice about this. That reckless comment could've cost the lives of thousands. It's criminal to go into a theater and yell fire, I think this is a similar situation. Ridiculous behavior that could've turned out much worse. I expect nothing short of an apology from that station.
4)Nothing yesterday got us closer to being perceived as anything but reckless thrill seekers. I for one am fully in support of any and all efforts to police chasing in any way at this point. The numbers are a joke (largely have ruined chasing on the big days), and I have zero problem with any attempts to try to cut those down even if it means I have to stay at home. The fact emergency management had to respond to CHASERS instead of people who were VICTIMS is a HUGE shame. I'm sick to my stomach about that. People could have (and very well might have) died because chasers themselves chose to become victims and had to be responded to."
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