Mass casualty incident reported after tornado hits Amazon distribution center in Illinois - Officials are confirming there are fatalities at the Amazon facility in Edwardsville following Friday night’s severe weather.

I am disgusted but not surprised Amazon would force workers to keep working in the midst of a tornado warning. Really hope they get cleaned out legally over this. Completely unacceptable.

The point of a tornado warning is to tell you to take cover immediately because there's a confirmed tornado on the ground. If there wasnt a reinforced area like an inner bathroom for workers to take shelter they shouldve been evacuated to a stronger building. I doubt the workers were even allowed to take cover though.

Tornado safety is supposed to be part of basic emergency preparedness in the south and midwest.
 
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Android raptor said:
I am disgusted but not surprised Amazon would force workers to keep working in the midst of a tornado warning. Really hope they get cleaned out legally over this. Completely unacceptable.
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I kinda understand working through a storm, because tornadic winds are unpredicatble and sudden. Imagine stopping everything you're doing because there might be a problem. Maybe. Probably not. But perhaps.
So tedious.
 
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FatalTater said:
I kinda understand working through a storm, because tornadic winds are unpredicatble and sudden. Imagine stopping everything you're doing because there might be a problem. Maybe. Probably not. But perhaps.
So tedious.
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If the sirens are going off, than everyone needs to take cover. That's the point of the sirens and tornado warnings in the first place. It means there's a confirmed tornado on the ground in the area.

Even a walmart I was at once when there was a tornado warning had everyone go in the back to the break rooms, both workers and customers. It never got near the store but that's still what you're supposed to do.
 
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I know it's like kicking a crippled, old dog. But...

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Front page of MSNBC as of this moment
 
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Android raptor said:
I am disgusted but not surprised Amazon would force workers to keep working in the midst of a tornado warning. Really hope they get cleaned out legally over this. Completely unacceptable.

The point of a tornado warning is to tell you to take cover immediately because there's a confirmed tornado on the ground. If there wasnt a reinforced area like an inner bathroom for workers to take shelter they shouldve been evacuated to a stronger building. I doubt the workers were even allowed to take cover though.

Tornado safety is supposed to be part of basic emergency preparedness in the south and midwest.
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I'm not looking to really defend amazon here because they are extremely shitty, but a few things:

First, it looks like this system really took a lot of people by surprise, and tbh that's how they go a lot of the time. Even if you have a feeling something's going to happen or have good meteorology skills you can't know a storm is going to actually produce a touchdown tornado until it does. And when that happens, like you said, best thing is to bunker down. Sending people home even with a half hour head start could have ended up with people getting caught in traffic which would be worse than in a building.

As far as the building tbh it probably was the cheapest shit Amazon would spring for in construction but I guess they may have been thinking at least it didn't have windows or something so that could explain why people chose to stay there as well.

I know Amazon warehouses are probably run on an individual level by very different types of people like anywhere else but tbh the Amazon warehouse my buddy works at seems to do pretty decent about letting them either go home or stay home with weather related shit. Better than the grocery store there did when I lived there lol had to think about bunkering down in a deli freezer once when we were under a warning
 
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Sithis said:
I'm not looking to really defend amazon here because they are extremely shitty, but a few things:

First, it looks like this system really took a lot of people by surprise, and tbh that's how they go a lot of the time. Even if you have a feeling something's going to happen or have good meteorology skills you can't know a storm is going to actually produce a touchdown tornado until it does. And when that happens, like you said, best thing is to bunker down. Sending people home even with a half hour head start could have ended up with people getting caught in traffic which would be worse than in a building.

As far as the building tbh it probably was the cheapest shit Amazon would spring for in construction but I guess they may have been thinking at least it didn't have windows or something so that could explain why people chose to stay there as well.

I know Amazon warehouses are probably run on an individual level by very different types of people like anywhere else but tbh the Amazon warehouse my buddy works at seems to do pretty decent about letting them either go home or stay home with weather related shit. Better than the grocery store there did when I lived there lol had to think about bunkering down in a deli freezer once when we were under a warning
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Still, bare minimum they need to build a stronger area for workers to take shelter. Those warehouses are flimsy AF but some kind of storm shelter or something. Storm shelters arent uncommon in the area.

Like at the very least it seems like these warehouses need to be built to different codes in tornado-prone areas. Especially since tornados aren't even the only storm shit you gotta worry about in those areas, theres also straight line winds and other fuckery. Thunderstorms dont fuck around in the southeast.
 
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WD-40 said:
Bowling Green tornado from the Western Kentucky University parking garage.
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WKU reports there are no injuries on campus, however one student who was due to graduate today died at his off-campus residence. Damages are minimal, but phone and power lines are down.
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Drone footage over Bowling Green.
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Shell Gas Station off Exit 28.
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Drone footage from Mayfield, KY.
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Remains of a church in Mayfield.
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The remains of hangers and small planes litter Boyle County Airport near Dansville. At least 7 small aircraft have been damaged/destroyed.
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Brett Adair caught photos of the tornado that hit Monette, Arkansas, crossing the I55 @ MM16.
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Poor guy was gonna graduate. Fuck....how awful. I can't imagine....
 
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The Nothingness said:
This tweet is rightfully getting ratioed. What a charming thing to say for those affected by the storms two weeks before Christmas *sigh*

FGWFigDXMAIMDYZ
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Yeah.
If you want to know why television comedy is awful. This exceptional individual is one of the reasons why.

Amazon.com: Just the Funny Parts: … And a Few Hard Truths About Sneaking into the Hollywood Boys' Club eBook : Scovell, Nell, Sandberg, Sheryl: Kindle Store

Amazon.com: Just the Funny Parts: … And a Few Hard Truths About Sneaking into the Hollywood Boys' Club eBook : Scovell, Nell, Sandberg, Sheryl: Kindle Store
www.amazon.com
 
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Exigent Circumcisions said:
Yeah, after looking at the storm track for a while I see how warm air was flowing up from Texas. I'm assuming that's a semi-frequent occurrence in the late fall? We had a freak tornado up here in Vancouver last month and that actually was out of the ordinary. Only the second recorded tornado in Vancouver's history.
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Yeah, about every five years or so we'll have a small outbreak of tornadoes December to February when we have a particularly mild week. The tornadoes spawned are usually weak EF1s and EF0s, so the few monsters that rolled through Mayfield and through Western Kentucky and southern Indiana and Illinois are strange, but not surprising.
I remember in the 1990s we had a tornado rip through town and rip apart a gas station just down the street. It happens.

What isn't surprising is the intensity of this outbreak. NOAA and local weather stations have been blasting this outbreak all week. These Amazon bigwigs and the factory owners of that candle factory are all going to come out and say this was an unforeseen disaster, but everyone knew this was coming. These cats just wanted to play the lottery and hope their shit wasn't impacted. They lost that bet.
 
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I love living in the Southeast, never really want to leave and if I ever do I will return as soon as possible.

However, tornadoes are absolutely the worst part of living here. It's hard to describe just how terrifying it is, having to pack a few bags and flee to your grandma's basement, knowing that you or your town could be the next to get hit, knowing that whatever you managed to pack in your bag may end up being all that you have by the end of the storm. Those sirens. When I eventually (hopefully) am able to buy a home, it MUST have a basement. I don't care if it's leaky or has a dirt floor. I HAVE to have a basement.

I was in elementary during the April 2011 mass outbreak event, and a neighboring town is one that was essentially flattened. Years later I got to meet people my age from that town through school activities and I heard their stories. Can you imagine being part of a search and rescue party at 12 years old and finding one of your teachers impaled on a tree? That was a major event, so based on predictions we knew we were going to have tornadoes, just not THAT major (IIRC). So as a result, my school released early last minute as the skies started going back and the wind picked up. I saw a huge garbage can fly around in the air through a window.
 
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Feline Supremacist said:
Serious question, what do you do when those go off in that weather? Do people still have cellars and whatnot?
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Most of tornado alley has either a basement or safe room (reinforced concrete box with concrete roof) if it's slab-on-grade. Because my county now requires a 4' footer for concrete front porches, a lot of people have started digging down another 4' for either a walk in gun safe or giant safe room under the porch with access from the basement.
SCSI said:
Got some more photos of the Amazon site.

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I'd like to point out the private towing company helping the FD with extraction with their 60-75 ton rotator. I'm sure whatever demo contractor they cross-train with will be there shortly. Oversize load on the lowboy in the middle of the night with police escort. Glad I never had to do it.
 
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