Oklahoma TV weatherman ( Mike Morgan) vilified for tornado advice

[question everything]

By Alice Mannette

(Reuters) - An award-winning Oklahoma television meteorologist has been criticized as "irresponsible" for telling viewers on Friday to get in their cars and flee approaching tornadoes, and some are blaming him for putting people in grave danger on clogged roads.

Mike Morgan, chief meteorologist for Oklahoma City television station KFOR, told viewers during a tornado warning to get in their cars and drive away from a threatened storm. Some people said they followed his advice and ended up stuck in traffic jams on major central Oklahoma highways as a massive storm bore down on the Oklahoma City area.

The result was a "nightmare" on the roads, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin said, exacerbated by some employers letting people off early from work to beat the rush hour on Friday.

Tornadoes and flooding from the Friday storms killed 20 people, the chief Oklahoma medical examiner's office said on Wednesday in its latest update of fatalities. Fallin said some people were sucked from their cars and some vehicles tossed from the roads.

More..

http://weather.yahoo.com/oklahoma-tv-weatherman-vilified-tornado-advice-052413546.html

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A local comment said that during tornadoes, a car is the enemy.

[Jenoch]

1. The only time I would

try to outrun a tornado by driving a car is if there is no traffic.

[TrogL]

3. I've been in that situation

I wasn't aware I was in an F-5 until after the fact. The rain, hail and wind made it almost impossible to drive. I got lucky that I was 90 degrees to the path of the tornado and it didn't turn and follow me.

I'd have been safer staying where I was.

[Jenoch]

9. Each situation is different.

When I wrote that post I was thinking of the videos I have seen recently of tornadoes. If I was far enough away to see the tornado, no traffic and I thought I coukd get south of it, I would. What I would not do is get onto a freeway on ramp following a bunch of other cars. I sure as hell would not get INTO a car to try to outrun a tornado. I grew up in SW Minnesota. While we didn't get as many tornadoes as TX, OK, KS, NE, there was an F5 that flattened a small, nearby town.

[hlthe2b]

2. With a EF4/5 tornado in an area where tornado shelters are inexplicably rare....

sheltering in place or trying to outrun in a car seem to be frequently equally risky.

Seems a case of "damned" no matter what. And, I was en route from MO, across Kansas back to CO last Friday during that episode, acutely aware that I could be 50 miles from any shelter whatsoever in my lightweight car, desperately seeking a ditch should the intermittently available cell phone service deliver an impending tornado warning.

[cbdo2007]

4. I'm in the midwest and the advice they've always given is - never stay in your car.

Never try to drive. Find a basement or a ditch and get in there.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. That tornado was 2.6 miles wide and an F-5....

The only sane advice would have been to find below ground shelter, which is what I heard one Okla. tv guy say during the outbreak the week before. He said it loudly and often.
It also needs to be mentioned that Okal. officials CLOSED parts of the freeway, including on-off ramps, which contributed to the gridlock.
Plus there was torrential rain pouring down, which stopped traffic..you cannot drive in that kind of rain, there is zero visibility, even during the day.
It was a perfect storm of mis-cues and weather problems, for sure.
I am actually surprised there were not more fatalities.

[spanone]

6. i heard mr morgan say this on the telly, it was kinda shocking.

i'd always heard that if you're in your car, get out and get into a nearby ditch if available.

[freshwest]

11. Please tell me if he seemed panicked. This sounds like he was freaked out.

Getting out of the car and into a ditch was what I'd heard, too.

[Myrina]

7. For real! The last thing you should do is be in a moving vehicle!

"Shelter in place" ... no?

[Floyd_Gondolli]

8. Morgasm deserves the critcism

For a whole bunch of reasons. I'd also add employing a douchebag (Reed Timmer) who profits by conducting "extreme tornado tours" for out of staters so they can point and look at the death and destruction for a fee is another transgression.

Being a histrionic addict is another.

[freshwest]

10. That 'sucked from their cars' just about says it all.

I've never heard the advice to try to drive away from a storm. That's a new one to me. Closest I'd heard was to abandon one's vehicle and get tight under an overpass on in a ditch.

I can only imagine he thought no one would survive for any reason no matter what shelter they took and that was his way of telling people to evacuate the area. A car is not a good place to be in a tornado because of broken glass, being sucked up in the air and all of that.

I think this guy panicked from what he saw coming. I hope that none of the people killed were taking his advice. A traffic jam is one thing. I hadn't heard of anyone 'sucked from their cars' but that sounds fatal to me. I don't think we've heard all that went on in OKC and Moore, and probably never will.

[question everything]

13. Also, I read that there was a pileup at the entry under a bridge where many thought

they would be safe. The velocity of the wind actually increases under a bridge.

[freshwest]

14. I agree. Supposed to quit your car, climb up the embankment, squeeze in at the top near the bridge.

I've seen video of people who survived that way, but it doesn't mean you won't get injured. It's the alternative to getting down into a culvert or ditch, trying to make yourself one with the ground if you're in the open.

With an F5, I don't think much will work. There was one some miles from me and it took up concrete slabs and even the asphalt roadways. Maybe the weatherman thought it was so bad, no one in the path would survive, so he was saying 'run for your lives.'

It looks like he is in big trouble for advising that too. I'd hate to think anyone lost their lives from his advice...

[KharmaTrain]

12. I Was Watching...

...and thought when I heard that. This was especially the case considering that there were several swarms of funnels going and this was occuring near the rush hour. Add to that, a Friday...and the ferocity of these storms. Not only were the roads clogged with traffic but the heavy rains made visibility impossible and water pooling up all over the place. We're fortunate that the storm strayed from the major highways and downtown area of OKC or Friday would have been a far greater disaster...

[DevonRex]

15. His advice saved people in the prior tornado. But...

Moore is a whole different kettle of fish. A suburb as opposed to a city emptying out onto the interstates.

The tornado wasn't survivable above ground. Period. But OKC is a city. It has a lot of businesses and less residential areas. The employers let people go early anyway. That had been planned since the storm was predicted 48 hours in advance.

I'm just not sure if the situation can be blamed on the weather people entirely. A home taking a direct hit would have been demolished. Nobody in it would have lived. They got that right. But that's just way too many people hitting the major arteries at once. Given the employers were letting folks go home it probably would have happened anyway.

[Saboburns]

16. And what if there isn't any underground shelter nearby??

You can lie in a ditch if you want, me, I'm going to get in my car and go.

[question everything]

20. Go where? I think that avoiding the major freeway where everyone went

and going to a commercial building, or even a parking lot would be better that just be on the road.

I would think that commercial buildings would have inside rooms and more secure ground floor if not underground. That was another story, of someone who ended up in a parking lot of a commercial building and survived.

But just jump in the car and drive is probably not a good idea.

[AngryOldDem]

17. I did a double take when I heard him say that.

Reckless advice, in most cases, but then this is a Hobson's choice. If you don't have adequate shelter, do you stay put and die, or do you take a chance and try to outrace it and **possibly** die?

You need to have a vault or something underground to survive tornadoes of that size. Crouching in your tub with blankets over your head ain't gonna cut it.

I think that if forecasters are reasonably certain that big tornadoes are likely -- as they were with these storms -- things should just close for the day and then people can act accordingly. I'd rather see a lost day of school or work due to a bad forecast, rather than scores killed in a storm. If storm shelters are not an option, then something else needs to be done.

[Jamastiene]

18. That is deadly "advice."

NEVER stay in a car. You are better off in a ditch in a low lying area.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

19. GOOD!

That was irresponsible and STUPID!

He needs fired!