I Don't Understand People Sometimes

KDFW TV, Dallas, Facebook Page Last Night (h/t Nate Johnson)
There were tornadoes on the ground, causing damage, when this was posted yesterday evening. I don't understand people sometimes.

I was still doing television (KSNW TV, Wichita) on April 26, 1991, the evening of the Wichita-Andover Tornado. This tornado, officially rated F-5, and two others were on the ground simultaneously in our viewing area at 7pm when NBC began airing Hollywood's Lost Youth, a Jane Pauley special about child stars that had gone astray. Moments later, the newsroom (for reasons unknown) put through a call from an upset viewer that I was "ruining her program" because of tornado warnings.

By the time the evening was over, 18 were dead in Kansas. The Centers for Disease Control did the first ever comprehensive study of tornado morbidity on the Wichita-Andover Tornado and estimated the tornado warnings saved about 60 lives.

Everyone: meteorologists have no way of knowing what a tornado will hit: Vacant fields or homes. I remember a tornado in Oklahoma that destroyed only one home but killed five people.

This is one of the reasons I plug my book on the building of the storm warning system. It isn't just because it is a great book (look at the 5-Star ratings at both Amazon and Barnes & Noble and all of the reviews by professional reviewers) but also because understanding of the tens of thousands of lives saved by warnings of tornadoes, hurricanes and downbursts would go a long way of putting things in proper perspective.

To the Dallas TV stations: Keep up the good work!

To the public: Read these comments then chill a bit. If you were in the path of a tornado, you'd feel much differently.

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