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At least one of the people who died inside the facility was a 29 years old maintenance worker. I do not know how predictable tornadoes such as this are, but I w

by almog 5y ago

At least one of the people who died inside the facility was a 29 years old maintenance worker. I do not know how predictable tornadoes such as this are, but I won't be surprised if these deaths could have been prevented. Source: https://twitter.com/AmeliaMtv/status/1469634726558412800 https://twitter.com/AmeliaMtv/status/1469634726558412800

almog 5y ago
And unsurprisingly, NBC News quoted a women working at a nearby Amazon facility confirming that they never had any tornado drills nor had they sheltered in place for any of the warnings they've had in the past: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/amazon-worker-deaths-tornados-raise-questions-tornado-training-cellpho-rcna8570 https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/amazon-worker...
kordlessagain 5y ago
There is very little reason for anyone in that building dying! So sad!
- Jerrrry 5y ago
  Beside the tornado's direct hit?
  - CaliforniaKarl 5y ago
    No. Buildings in Tornado-prone areas must be built with tornado shelters. Those are rooms within the building that are designed to withstand both a hit from a tornado, and the debris. To be clear, the entire building does not need to be a tornado shelter. Just enough space within the building to hold its occupants.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  - derekjdanserl 5y ago
    Tornado shelters are not exactly a novel idea.
  - pvaldes 5y ago
    The problem is that in the prediction of such extreme weather, in the middle of a really strong storm, this people should be told to get the fuck off, go home and take care of their families for a few hours instead to become martyrs of packaging. Why they were risking their lives working at night in a notoriously unsafe type of building, with a warning of tornado hitting the area? This was the wrong decision also for Amazon. Taking at least the bare minimum reasonable measures to protect their employees would have saved the company a lot of money and lawyers time. Nobody could have stopped the warehouse destruction in any case but the recovering would have been much more simple and much faster.
    - gusgus01 5y ago
      I just thought I'd come back and let you know in case you hadn't seen. At least one employee did want to do exactly that, but they were not allowed to leave https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-worker-not-allowed-leave-facility-as-tornado-approached-girlfriend-2021-12 https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-worker-not-allowed-le.... Then it's a harder decision, livelihood vs increased chance of danger.
Tagbert 5y ago
Tornados can be predicted in broad terms but are highly variable on the ground. Weather forecasts can usually identify that the conditions favorable for tornados are happening. That is announced as a Tornado Watch. If someone sees a tornado, they will issue a Tornado Warning, usually for the whole county. They will sound sirens if available. People are urged to take shelter, ideally underground. Otherwise they are told to shelter in the most substantial part of a building. Many people do take shelter but others decide to tough it out. Tornados are relatively small compared to hurricanes and earthquakes but they are very intense within a few hundred foot wide area where they tear everything apart and blow it around with 300mph winds doing more destruction with that debris. They move in erratic directions and can pickup and hop around. There can be multiple tornados at one time. Any one person is not a great risk of harm but anyone in the path of the tornado is at great risk. People living in the area have been through tornado warnings before without harm. This can lead to people assuming that they will be fine and not taking precautions. Chances are they are right but if they are wrong… it goes very wrong.
- Maursault 5y ago
  > Tornados can be predicted in broad terms There are occasions where tornados can be predicted accurately with radar data, yet with only about a 4 minute lead time. The hook echo has been recognized for decades with recognition and detection further refined with Next Gen Doppler radar.[1] But not all tornadic storms display a hook echo and not all hook echoes produce tornadoes. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hook_echo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hook_echo
- josephwegner 5y ago
  This is accurate. Particularly the “alarm fatigue”. I’ve lived in the Midwest my whole life. I’ve heard many tornado sirens, been through many watches and warnings, and never once actually been close to a tornado that did any damage. A few months ago I was woken in the middle of the night by my wife who heard sirens. I was groggy, and before I was convinced to get out of bed, the sirens stopped. This has happened dozens of times in my life, and felt entirely routine - there was no panic. A few minutes later my phone gave an emergency alert announcing a Tornado Watch. I decided it was time to move to the basement, so I went downstairs and set up candles and blankets, and then began the process of gently waking my 3 young children in an attempt to move them without terrifying them. As I moved the last of them, I glanced at a clock and saw it was 11:53. We moved to the basement and all was quiet. It seemed like another false alarm. The next morning I discovered that the tornado hit two blocks away from me, and leveled entire street’s worth of houses. Radar confirmed the tornado passed through my neighborhood at 11:50. If I had been two blocks south, at least me and my son would be dead. Potentially more of us. Alarm fatigue is real, but don’t let it happen with tornado sirens. They come quick and hit hard.
noodlenotes 5y ago
When you hear a tornado warning, the advice is to shelter in place in the most structurally sound part of the building. Given that half of the building collapsed, there may not have been a safe place. Running away from tornadoes is not recommended, and you can't evacuate in advance of a storm because the region that tornados may hit is too large. Do you think there was a problem with how the building was built? Here's an article with photos for anyone who doesn't want to watch the video: https://fox2now.com/news/illinois/photos-tornado-destroys-edwardsville-amazon-facility/ https://fox2now.com/news/illinois/photos-tornado-destroys-ed...
- mgerdts 5y ago
  > Do you think there was a problem with how the building was built? It is quite impractical to build a large building that will withstand a tornado. The fact that the building was cut in half and the contents largely removed is not terribly surprising. Buildings like this (including big box stores, large grocery stores, office buildings, etc.) typically have designated tornado shelter areas. These should be on the lowest floor (below ground level is the best) with small rooms. The walls are generally made of cinder blocks or something sturdier. If you are in a building like this, need a tornado shelter, and don't know where it is look for the restrooms. When you get there you will likely find a sign that indicates it is the tornado shelter.
  - cma 5y ago
    That defintely seems best, especially if underground any, but the footage shows a lot of shredded solid brick walls (footage from the Kentucky one, not the Illinois): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZMAmxP5cgs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZMAmxP5cgs Cinder-block with metal reinforcement is a level beyond brick though.
  - grogenaut 5y ago
    It's hard to build most buildings to handle a big tornado. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercy_Hospital_Joplin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercy_Hospital_Joplin is a concrete hospital that took a direct hit, the building is standing but it took very large amounts of damage and that's a beefy expensive building. Was at my friends house in texas a month ago who had a storm shelter in the garage, it's a 1/4" steel box that is anchored to the ground and has the GPS coordinates etched on the inside since if it does it's job there may not be anything around but GPS to tell you where it is.

by almog 5y ago

almog 5y ago

And unsurprisingly, NBC News quoted a women working at a nearby Amazon facility confirming that they never had any tornado drills nor had they sheltered in place for any of the warnings they've had in the past: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/amazon-worker-deaths-tornados-raise-questions-tornado-training-cellpho-rcna8570 https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/amazon-worker...

kordlessagain 5y ago

There is very little reason for anyone in that building dying! So sad!

Jerrrry 5y ago
Beside the tornado's direct hit?
- CaliforniaKarl 5y ago
  No. Buildings in Tornado-prone areas must be built with tornado shelters. Those are rooms within the building that are designed to withstand both a hit from a tornado, and the debris. To be clear, the entire building does not need to be a tornado shelter. Just enough space within the building to hold its occupants.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- derekjdanserl 5y ago
  Tornado shelters are not exactly a novel idea.
- pvaldes 5y ago
  The problem is that in the prediction of such extreme weather, in the middle of a really strong storm, this people should be told to get the fuck off, go home and take care of their families for a few hours instead to become martyrs of packaging. Why they were risking their lives working at night in a notoriously unsafe type of building, with a warning of tornado hitting the area? This was the wrong decision also for Amazon. Taking at least the bare minimum reasonable measures to protect their employees would have saved the company a lot of money and lawyers time. Nobody could have stopped the warehouse destruction in any case but the recovering would have been much more simple and much faster.
  - gusgus01 5y ago
    I just thought I'd come back and let you know in case you hadn't seen. At least one employee did want to do exactly that, but they were not allowed to leave https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-worker-not-allowed-leave-facility-as-tornado-approached-girlfriend-2021-12 https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-worker-not-allowed-le.... Then it's a harder decision, livelihood vs increased chance of danger.

Tagbert 5y ago

Tornados can be predicted in broad terms but are highly variable on the ground. Weather forecasts can usually identify that the conditions favorable for tornados are happening. That is announced as a Tornado Watch. If someone sees a tornado, they will issue a Tornado Warning, usually for the whole county. They will sound sirens if available. People are urged to take shelter, ideally underground. Otherwise they are told to shelter in the most substantial part of a building. Many people do take shelter but others decide to tough it out. Tornados are relatively small compared to hurricanes and earthquakes but they are very intense within a few hundred foot wide area where they tear everything apart and blow it around with 300mph winds doing more destruction with that debris. They move in erratic directions and can pickup and hop around. There can be multiple tornados at one time. Any one person is not a great risk of harm but anyone in the path of the tornado is at great risk. People living in the area have been through tornado warnings before without harm. This can lead to people assuming that they will be fine and not taking precautions. Chances are they are right but if they are wrong… it goes very wrong.

Maursault 5y ago
> Tornados can be predicted in broad terms There are occasions where tornados can be predicted accurately with radar data, yet with only about a 4 minute lead time. The hook echo has been recognized for decades with recognition and detection further refined with Next Gen Doppler radar.[1] But not all tornadic storms display a hook echo and not all hook echoes produce tornadoes. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hook_echo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hook_echo
josephwegner 5y ago
This is accurate. Particularly the “alarm fatigue”. I’ve lived in the Midwest my whole life. I’ve heard many tornado sirens, been through many watches and warnings, and never once actually been close to a tornado that did any damage. A few months ago I was woken in the middle of the night by my wife who heard sirens. I was groggy, and before I was convinced to get out of bed, the sirens stopped. This has happened dozens of times in my life, and felt entirely routine - there was no panic. A few minutes later my phone gave an emergency alert announcing a Tornado Watch. I decided it was time to move to the basement, so I went downstairs and set up candles and blankets, and then began the process of gently waking my 3 young children in an attempt to move them without terrifying them. As I moved the last of them, I glanced at a clock and saw it was 11:53. We moved to the basement and all was quiet. It seemed like another false alarm. The next morning I discovered that the tornado hit two blocks away from me, and leveled entire street’s worth of houses. Radar confirmed the tornado passed through my neighborhood at 11:50. If I had been two blocks south, at least me and my son would be dead. Potentially more of us. Alarm fatigue is real, but don’t let it happen with tornado sirens. They come quick and hit hard.

noodlenotes 5y ago

When you hear a tornado warning, the advice is to shelter in place in the most structurally sound part of the building. Given that half of the building collapsed, there may not have been a safe place. Running away from tornadoes is not recommended, and you can't evacuate in advance of a storm because the region that tornados may hit is too large. Do you think there was a problem with how the building was built? Here's an article with photos for anyone who doesn't want to watch the video: https://fox2now.com/news/illinois/photos-tornado-destroys-edwardsville-amazon-facility/ https://fox2now.com/news/illinois/photos-tornado-destroys-ed...

mgerdts 5y ago
> Do you think there was a problem with how the building was built? It is quite impractical to build a large building that will withstand a tornado. The fact that the building was cut in half and the contents largely removed is not terribly surprising. Buildings like this (including big box stores, large grocery stores, office buildings, etc.) typically have designated tornado shelter areas. These should be on the lowest floor (below ground level is the best) with small rooms. The walls are generally made of cinder blocks or something sturdier. If you are in a building like this, need a tornado shelter, and don't know where it is look for the restrooms. When you get there you will likely find a sign that indicates it is the tornado shelter.
- cma 5y ago
  That defintely seems best, especially if underground any, but the footage shows a lot of shredded solid brick walls (footage from the Kentucky one, not the Illinois): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZMAmxP5cgs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZMAmxP5cgs Cinder-block with metal reinforcement is a level beyond brick though.
- grogenaut 5y ago
  It's hard to build most buildings to handle a big tornado. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercy_Hospital_Joplin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercy_Hospital_Joplin is a concrete hospital that took a direct hit, the building is standing but it took very large amounts of damage and that's a beefy expensive building. Was at my friends house in texas a month ago who had a storm shelter in the garage, it's a 1/4" steel box that is anchored to the ground and has the GPS coordinates etched on the inside since if it does it's job there may not be anything around but GPS to tell you where it is.