DANGER!! DANGER!! Be Afraid
We are currently in the midst of a Tornado Warning in middle Tennessee. Tornados have become commonplace during this time of year. As real as the threat is, I always have to laugh at the people they round up to interview for the local news outlets.
Case in point, I was reading a local news article a few minutes ago about the storm that is currently moving through the area. In the article, they make me so proud of my hometown of Dickson, TN. The following is the quote from my hometown hero, "It come right over me. ... I heard the storm coming, I went down to the creek bed, and I hunkered down. It was gone as quick as it come."
Ahh... brings back memories of the BIG winter snow storms that come through Minnesota. They are very common yet the news media always tries to scare the pants off everyone.
Interviews with "'regular" people feature comments like, "Ya... it's really comin' down out there. You betcha... I've got my plow gassed up and ready to go. Oh yeah sure... I'm gonna get out tomorrow."
Sadly, six people were killed Friday about thirty minutes from where I work. The tornados actually did a lot of damage this past week. 30+ people killed in Tennessee. It isn't unheard of for there to be property damage and houses destoyed. Normally however, we escape these things with only a couple of minor injuries.
That said, I still laugh at the people the news finds to interview. They always seem to know exactly where to find the cooks and weirdos.
One last thing, as you can imagine, there are still a number of trailer parks in this area. Everytime a tornado passes through, the news anchors advise those in trailer homes to leave and go lay in the nearest ditch. Evidently, you are safer in a ditch during a tornado than in a trailer home.
as i understand it, there is an entire branch of meteorology and associated sciences looking into whether or not mobile home parks attract tornadoes or not. the science seems to be inconclusive but it is interesting that it warranted study.