OK, I'm easy. "It's global warming! It's climate change! Everyone knows tornadoes don't happen in October!" So it took seven minutes, but what do you want? Arkansas, Mississippi, hang in there!

With five tornadoes, it is a wonder no one was killed. In areas where the land is flat, there really isn't much choice where to run to. Unless one has a ditch, then again, with the suction that a tornado is capable of, including being able to rip the pavement of a highway off the ground, that may not save one. They can also jump and touch down unpredictably. Destroying a home here, miss the one next door, then wiping out the rest of the whole block. With the debris being thrown about, people can be killed easily. Straws have been found embedded into poles. So if one had no other place to go than staying in a trailer, going outside is not the safest bet in every case. That is why the sooner one gets information of a warning, the better the chance of getting to a safer place if possible. I spent several decades in tornado alley. As far as "Everyone knows tornadoes don't happen in October, just remember, there is no "season" for tornadoes. They can occur anytime when the conditions are right

I heard the sirens. Trailer shook a lil'. I went right back to sleep. I'm kidding. I don't live in a trailer. But I am in Mississippi.

did i miss anyone?

Yeah, the mindless meaningless rant of pointing out people that have a different view point than yours.

C,mon, Scoot...I'll buy you a beer, cuz we both know that not all conservatives are @!$%#s, and all liberals aren't fukwits, and being Iowan's...we KNOW the weather is going to do what the weather is going to do. Maybe over that beer, we can come up with an idea how to fortify a trailer. My idea is a ferrous concrete "wrap". What's yours? Here, lemme get you another....

Pam, good morning long time no see,

anyway the main problem is structural, the older trailers had walls 2-3 inches thick, so tying them down isn't much help. the destructive power of these things are awesome. concrete wrap would work but who would want to live in a bunker? Now several companies around here offer a bunker made of concrete and supposedly "tornado proof"..they always reminded me of a mausoleum, anyway i consider it a "feel good" racket. after all who knows for sure if they work? even living around here, the odds of getting a direct hit by a cat 3-5 tornado are astronomical. dang i do tend to rattle on when i drink, please excuse me, and its my round........

IA.ScooterTramp

dave, agreed and ........

did i miss anyone?

You missed the guy who posts the comment in response to a completely different article.

What about the grammer Nazis?

thanks bill and ryan forgot those two. although in truth i do enjoy annoying the vine G&S/PD.

Agreed, Scoot...trailer walls are woefully inferior. I think that keeping the wind from going under the trailer might cut down on the tear out and roll over. Berming earth under the trailer, then re-inforcing with a wrap might cut down on that some...continuing the wrap around the trailer..(cut outs for windows, doors, etc.) might eliminate the claustrophibic element. I'm a big fan of laminated windows...(wish they were more affordable.) Anyhow...I'm pretty hammered now, but it was way cool to "see" you, again..Thanks for the last round! See you out of the field, my friend!

yes pam, it does help. most folk i use to know put skirting around the bottom of theirs years ago, it did help. now its a law around here, don't know if its county or state though.

but in the end when mother nature wants to have her way with you, there isn't much you can do about it........

Lesson learned: If you live in an area which has a history or the likelyhood of spawning tornados during a storm, don't live in a trailer. May as well go park it in the crater of a frequently active volcano.

David u must not be from the south. A good portion of october is still relatively warm in the south as the weather changes over

Thank goodness there is sanity out there after all. Re-read the posts at the end of the day and see if this holds true. There are some trolls out there who will blame somebody.

learning before your in the situation is ALWAYS the thing to do. most of us have emergency plans. unfortunately some ( mostly the younger crowd ) don't. they rely way to heavily on their electronic toys. problem is cell phones and computers don't work well when a tornado takes out the local tower, or the power source for your P.C or T.V.

IA.ScooterTramp

learning before your in the situation is ALWAYS the thing to do. most of us have emergency plans. unfortunately some ( mostly the younger crowd ) don't. they rely way to heavily on their electronic toys.

Note to people who didn't grow up in Kansas (as I did): Wanna know what the weather's like? Look out your window.

lived down there a spell myself, 76 as i recall, went trough there comin back from dallas last month, I-35 sure has changed, nothin else did though........

Aww c'mom ... you totally forgot to blame Bush, Obama, Romney and God. I can't believe this mssg board has gotten this far without those being thrown in. ;)

Well. Samantha....despite our political differences...we have common ground. Many of us live in areas where we are at risk for foul weather. I think the genuine concern over preparation and safety supercedes politics on this one.

For example..Scooter is a conservative, and I am a liberal...but we both are ( proud to be ) Iowans, and we both believe in self sufficiency, (and beer. LOL!) Given that....why stir the pot if you don't have to?

uh samantha... you do realise don't you that....ya just did..........lol..............

and Pam, kinda-sorta, im an independent never voted a strait ticket in my life. but enjoy have both major types on my friends list as well as many independents like myself.

ever been in the county Chief most times there simply isn't much choice

Kinda like surface sailors rideing out a hurricane on a DE. they didny effect my "boat" at all

ssn 664

A lot of these areas are flat land with no place to run. Also these tornadoes occurred in the dark of night, around 2AM so the tornadoes come out of nowhere. It is not even possible in some of these areas to build storm shelters because they fill with rainwater. Also, on this occasion the radar malfunctioned in one of the main cities so the storms were not tracked properly. There are a lot of people in the Arkansas/Louisiana/Mississippi delta who cannot afford anything more than a trailer, but they still love and care for their children. Show a little empathy.

kudos jack.

you get it.

Some of them will be needing help. Please go on the following sites to check.

www;2hands.org

www.modestneeds.org

I'm just glad no one was seriously injured or killed. A tornado hit less than 3 miles from my house and another hit within 5 miles of my sister's house this year and it really makes you think how this could be you in a story like this. Tornadoes aren't like hurricanes where you get several days to decide what to do. You're suddenly in a thunderstorm and the next thing you know, your home is being ripped apart. Hail is commonly associated with tornadoes and I hate it when I hear the sound of hail hitting my roof. I was driving through Kansas some years back when a large tornado hit. It got so dark so fast, even with the headlights on all I could see was maybe 5 feet in front of me. All I could do was pull to the side of the road. I remember this sign in front of me bobbing back and forth hitting the ground wondering why it didn't snap off and the car shaking like crazy. When it was all over, on the radio they announced that a tornado had hit in such and such area and there it was on the sign in front of me. So saying that these families were endangering their children is plain ignorant because you don't know what you are talking about, especially if you've never been in a tornado. What would you have had them do? Rush outside into the rain, hail, wind and darkness so they could be hit by flying debris?

Oh, I don't know-- the work and years involved in earning a Ph.D. from an accredited educational institution is rather impressive.

charly..i dun agree edsucation be mighhtee importent..

yep...dun spended dang neart fer years at that there communit collage and lerned me real good......looky out now werld, i dun gots me a G.E.D ......................:)

Charle7834

Oh, I don't know-- the work and years involved in earning a Ph.D. from an accredited educational institution is rather impressive.

Don't confuse work with accomplishment or motion with progress. I know carpenters who have 30 years experience, and I also know carpenters who have 1 years experience 30 times. It has been conclusively proven that a college degree will not cure stupidity.

It has been conclusively proven that a college degree will not cure stupidity.

dang...all dem years fer nothin.. i was hopin to start meself off as onna dem dere "Assistint Manager" Types down at da local mickey-D's ( dey meats all da hot chicks yas knows) done went to goodwill and got a tiy and everthun.

Hey Charley;

Kind of an odd way to bring up you education,,,, after a comment about a hooker bragging up her lost virginity? What are you saying?, you worked as a prostitute to get you PhD?

Whoa whoa, Scooter. I've lived in Mississippi my entire life and your portrayal of southerners in general is just....dead on.LOL

It's actually quite sad how many people I know are proud of themselves for getting a GED. It's sad because most of them are actually working class white kids who had every opportunity to finish high school, they were just lazy.

Mike,

Knew a lot of white kids in TN who didn't finish high school because they were helping out on the farm. Had to get the GED later. Still a lot of small farms in the hills.

Could drive tractors and backhoes by the time they were nine and ten, had to study like the devil to pass the driver's license test though they had been driving on the road for years.

Mike been there. wasn't a shot at ANY particular state though. i try not to disparage any state. i have been in all 48 lower and loved em all, some more then others of course. except city's however, be it L.A. Chi-town, NYC i pretty much despise them all.

screm

loved it outside of ( west of) Knoxville... worked a gig in madisonville , didn't care much for the one i worked in Nashville tho. guess im just not into the whole "big city "thing.

Scooter,

I read a lot of disparaging and downright hateful, nasty comments about the South and our people on the Vine. The truth is that we are different here in our customs, language and way of life. We are not as material in our thinking as some and are content in ways that are beyond the concept of the rest of the country.

We have come to realize that you can't take it with you, and no one has ever seen a hearse pulling a U-haul.

But we CAN survive.

We have come to realize that you can't take it with you, and no one has ever seen a hearse pulling a U-haul.

loved that line

is it still considered in poor taste however to show up at the reading of the will with one? even when you KNOW your in the will?.......................:)

LOL...

jturner,

sorry for your peoples loss.hope they are ok. my friends have checked in from murfesboro (sp) and madisonville, but not from collinswood. you KNOW anything about that area? kinda concerned...

jturner1

Hey Denver, I'm hoping that you and your family had a safe and dry night. I also hope that you didn't have any of your friends to lose their house (no matter the type) last night like I did. Not everyone is apparently as affluent, awesome, and protected as you are. Thankfully no one was hurt by last night's storm here in good ol' "Redneckville", TN.

I too am sorry for your loss. We had a safe and dry night, but dark, since the storm that hit you hit us a day earlier, and knocked out power for large segments of the city, including my house.

You might think you are cute, but you are just a dick.

Agreed. And a pretty big one at that.

jturner1, don't call him a "dick". That is part of a man, and he sure isn't a man with his comments.

bill.....braggart......

i remember my last date the gal says,,,"who do you think your going to please with that"? i answered..."ME"....:)

SallyAnn-4595694

jturner1, don't call him a "dick". That is part of a man, and he sure isn't a man with his comments.

I gave you a vote up, for being the first person to see through my subterfuge.

denver bill,

I commend you for acknowledging that you were out of line and not firing back with something even more distasteful... which is what usually happens when someone is called out on the Vine.

Thank you.

Being from Joplin, Mo, trust me, I will always remember. The EF-5 that came to town that day did not effect a "small area". It's path was 1-1/2 mile wide and 13 miles long. It leveled everything in it's path and reduced St. John's hospital, a steel reenforced concrete structure to basically a blown out shell. It killed 163 people and left 2000 plus injured and one still missing.

I had a grandson ride out that storm in an interior closet, that closet was the only part of the brick house left standing. The others in the house were found outside in the rubble of the houses in the neighborhood. All seriously injured and his fraternal grand dad was killed. It slammed a new Mustang into a large Oak tree wrapping the car around the tree like a twist tie 15 feet off the ground, killing the three people in the car. The storm came in without much warning during the busiest time of afternoon and caught many off guard.

In essence it wiped out a third of the city. No structure type was spared. Brick, frame, stone, concrete or steel were all wiped away by this storm. Tornadoes don't discriminate, Mobile homes are no more likely than any other to fall to a tornado. They are the most powerful storms in nature. They are not evil, they do not target a certain structures, if it is the path of the storm it will be destroyed. A point that needs to be made here is this, many of the homes involved had safe rooms, many of them were crushed by the power of this storm. It was learned that even a concrete safe room is no guarantee against this most powerful of tornadoes. When a storm removes everything from it's path including every blade of grass, every limb and the bark from trees, and pulls sections of the roads from the ground few things built by man will survive it. It launched man hole covers several miles like 70 pound Frisbee's. One such Frisbee sliced through six new cars at the Mercedes dealer three miles north of it's path. Needless to say it was quite an experience for the dealer. And it hit the highest priced six on the lot at the time.

The pictures from Joplin of the destruction really don't convey the true magnitude. I could literally stand at 22nd and Range Line rd on the east side of town, look west and see into Kansas, turn and look east to see what was left of Dunawig and Ducayne, because there was literally nothing left standing along the tornadoes path. I've seen plenty of tornado damage in my life, but, nothing like that. It reminded me of the scene of a nuclear bomb blast zone. Nothing left standing, nothing. Still there are large area's of the former neighborhoods empty. We are rebuilding but it will be a long time before it's all replaced, and forever before it fades from memory.

Nicodemus,

I agree with you, but I would take exception to the statement that mobile homes are no more likely than any other to take damage.

A Cat-5 has no mercy for anything-this is very true. But a lesser storm will tear a trailer to pieces long before anything else that is structurally sound. I agree with Cactuscat..the word would be senssationalism (sp?).

Perhaps it's because the wind can get under them, perhaps it's the idea that, while they are built well (they are built to travel many miles over all types of roads), but many have to travel 1000+ miles, from the factory to the dealership, then on to the home site. It's hard to imagine that after all that flexing, nothing has come a little bit loose...sure would be good if it could be figured out...

Please don't think I'm bad-mouthing mobile homes. My father owned the largest dealership in 5 counties in upstate NY...lived in one from 12 yo on...

Tornadoes are horrible creatures. Saw results of one in Red Hook, NY. Brand new trailer; 1st payment not due yet-lifted up and over the propane tank and onto its side, never touching the tank...skipped 3 trailers, and laid the next one open like a cardboard box ripped open at the seam... (nobody hurt, thank God!)

I live in Charlotte, NC. Went through Hurricane Hugo. No electricity or phone for 2 weeks. But, that's not squat compared to a twister!

By the way, tornadoes can occur ANYwhere! I believe the only state that hasn't had one is Alaska. So, truth is, ANYone in a mobile home is at risk

Good luck to all those affected.

and now your all snugly safe from mother nature eh? and where oh where is that exceptional place? do you also have unicorns grazing in the yard?

Bob Cotton;

First thank you for the holier than thou attitude. Have you look at a mobile home in the last twenty years? No? I'm shocked. They aren't the aluminum boxes you, evidently, remember from childhood. Mobile homes are no more prone to tornado damage than any other structure. I live in Joplin, NOTHING survived the EF-5 that came through town last year. St. John's hospital a six story steel reenforced concrete structure was reduced to a blown out shell by the storm. Frame, brick, stone, concrete, steel buildings and homes all fell to the storm. Nothing was spared.

What do you propose every structure in tornado alley be underground? Why do people live in "flood planes" Why do people live along the coast where they could be blown away by hurricanes or washed away by a tsunami? Why do people live in quake areas, near volcanoes, land slide zones, avalanche zones? That's like asking why we live anywhere. Tornadoes, while the most powerful storms on earth, are relatively small in the effected area. If you happen to be in the path of one, it sucks. But can you imagine if they grew to the size of a hurricane? Each EF-5 that size would wipe out a third of the continent. If nature sends a disaster your way, whatever you live in really isn't going to save you.

Instead of being smug, here's a novel idea, do something to help. Otherwise, spare everyone your particular brand of ignorance.

Many people have mobile homes for second homes, retirement homes, hunting cabins, house at the beach, etc.

And, as I stated in my previous post, the ONLY state to not have (as of yet) a tornado is Alaska.

Perhaps you live in Alaska now?

In case you don't realise it, your statement was very rude and condescending. You are ignorant. Go read a book.

sam adams, you know their regressive governor will be yelling and screaming for govt help, and also be complaining Obama didn't act fast enough. And yes, since they hate welfare, Obama should tell them like Mitt told most of Americans, "you won't vote me for me anyway. So no, now is not the time for welfare, we are broke."

I'm sure those regressive low informed people who hate the govt, hate welfare, etc etc would and could understand the govt position.

You seem to misunderstand a lot of things, not to mention you lack compassion.

Sam Adams;

Surely the brewer who's name you stole can sue you for slander and blatant ignorance. you do realize that red state pay as much or more into the federal coffers as you leftist, nanny state, welfare expanding blue states, yes? We'll remember you said that if there is a time when you are on here whining about your misfortune at the hands of a natural disaster.

The last I looked, there was no place where the sun shines all the time and a rainbow is ever present and unicorns play in the yard. Stop taking the indoctrination drugs and see you political hero's for the money grubbing, power mongering, compassion less slugs that ALL politicians truly are. They all have two things in common,1) They all seek power and money and 2) If they're mouth is moving, they ARE lying to you. Evidently, you are just too thoroughly indoctrinated to see it. How sad.

maggie

not picking on ya here but you have been on here since2009 yet dont know what the reply to post on the lower right hand corner is for? now you do.

... well good deed done for today....

My Prayers and Love to all the victims and their families.