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Six dead after tornadoes destroy Amazon warehouse near St Louis

reuters.com

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Re: Six dead after tornadoes destroy Amazon warehouse near St Louis

#111
post #70

"Six Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) workers were confirmed dead on Saturday after a series of tornadoes roared through a warehouse near St Louis, ripping off its roof and causing 11-inch thick concrete walls longer than football fields to collapse on themselves." Horrific. A wall that size cannot possibly survive a big wind. Cannot.

> Horrific.

> A wall that size cannot possibly survive a big wind.

> Cannot.

A reinforced concrete should've been easily capable of withstanding a hurricane.

First thing I see is that roof was not attached to anything reinforcing in the wall, or columns.

It seems it solely relied on its weight, which was easily overwhelmed by wind, to keep it in place.

Re: Six dead after tornadoes destroy Amazon warehouse near St Louis

#112

I slept through three tornado sirens last night. It was pretty wild. The first one, I thought it was a test. (We have tests every month on the 1st.) But it wasn't until a few minutes in that I realized it was for real. Then apparently I just... went to sleep? That wasn't the smartest decision I've ever made. It went off a couple more times. One strange thing was the realization that I had no idea where to turn for in…

>The fall of TV You mean in your daily in-take of media? Local TV stations are required to broadcast weather. It's actually part of their licensing. So if you're not in the habit of turning on the local station because of crappy programming (like me), then you should at least be willing to find a local station during weather. Even if regular programming is on, they will break in when requested by the NWS. Local radio…

> If you're in Hawaii, you'll get a text.

Or even a missile alert! This must have been terrifying:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Hawaii_false_missile_aler...

Re: Six dead after tornadoes destroy Amazon warehouse near St Louis

#113

I slept through three tornado sirens last night. It was pretty wild. The first one, I thought it was a test. (We have tests every month on the 1st.) But it wasn't until a few minutes in that I realized it was for real. Then apparently I just... went to sleep? That wasn't the smartest decision I've ever made. It went off a couple more times. One strange thing was the realization that I had no idea where to turn for in…

The most straightforward thing you can do is pick up a cheap TV antenna and a basic battery powered radio.

Over the air TV is actually really good now. The switch to digital brought full HD over the air. And local FM/AM radio will broadcast info in an emergency. Can get a weather radio too if you want to.

Re: Six dead after tornadoes destroy Amazon warehouse near St Louis

#114

I slept through three tornado sirens last night. It was pretty wild. The first one, I thought it was a test. (We have tests every month on the 1st.) But it wasn't until a few minutes in that I realized it was for real. Then apparently I just... went to sleep? That wasn't the smartest decision I've ever made. It went off a couple more times. One strange thing was the realization that I had no idea where to turn for in…

>The fall of TV You mean in your daily in-take of media? Local TV stations are required to broadcast weather. It's actually part of their licensing. So if you're not in the habit of turning on the local station because of crappy programming (like me), then you should at least be willing to find a local station during weather. Even if regular programming is on, they will break in when requested by the NWS. Local radio…

> So if you're not in the habit of turning on the local station because of crappy programming (like me), then you should at least be willing to find a local station during weather.

How would I even go about doing that? The only display devices I have are monitors. Even for radio, I would have to go to my car to listen.

Re: Six dead after tornadoes destroy Amazon warehouse near St Louis

#115
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can use your phone as an FM/AM radio receiver. Tune to your local station.

Can you do this on an iPhone? The first time I was in a Tesla, my initial thought was why can’t my phone tune into FM Radio.

wow TIL Teslas don’t come standard with a radio, who do they think they are, Lotus? ;-)

Re: Six dead after tornadoes destroy Amazon warehouse near St Louis

#116

I slept through three tornado sirens last night. It was pretty wild. The first one, I thought it was a test. (We have tests every month on the 1st.) But it wasn't until a few minutes in that I realized it was for real. Then apparently I just... went to sleep? That wasn't the smartest decision I've ever made. It went off a couple more times. One strange thing was the realization that I had no idea where to turn for in…

My wife and I were evaluating last night what to do. We saw the warnings, but they happen so often we just went back to bed after looking outside. Woke up to part of our siding was ripped off from the storms (not uncommon). We kind of figured it would happen, but the storms were hours long and 99.9% of the time nothing happens.

Re: Six dead after tornadoes destroy Amazon warehouse near St Louis

#117
post #70

"Six Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) workers were confirmed dead on Saturday after a series of tornadoes roared through a warehouse near St Louis, ripping off its roof and causing 11-inch thick concrete walls longer than football fields to collapse on themselves." Horrific. A wall that size cannot possibly survive a big wind. Cannot.

Point me to a warehouse currently built in the US that would survive this.

Re: Six dead after tornadoes destroy Amazon warehouse near St Louis

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The fall of TV You mean in your daily in-take of media? Local TV stations are required to broadcast weather. It's actually part of their licensing. So if you're not in the habit of turning on the local station because of crappy programming (like me), then you should at least be willing to find a local station during weather. Even if regular programming is on, they will break in when requested by the NWS. Local radio…

> So if you're not in the habit of turning on the local station because of crappy programming (like me), then you should at least be willing to find a local station during weather. How would I even go about doing that? The only display devices I have are monitors. Even for radio, I would have to go to my car to listen.

Get an emergency radio. They’re not expensive.

Re: Six dead after tornadoes destroy Amazon warehouse near St Louis

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The fall of TV You mean in your daily in-take of media? Local TV stations are required to broadcast weather. It's actually part of their licensing. So if you're not in the habit of turning on the local station because of crappy programming (like me), then you should at least be willing to find a local station during weather. Even if regular programming is on, they will break in when requested by the NWS. Local radio…

> So if you're not in the habit of turning on the local station because of crappy programming (like me), then you should at least be willing to find a local station during weather. How would I even go about doing that? The only display devices I have are monitors. Even for radio, I would have to go to my car to listen.

If getting a cheap TV is out of the question. Get a cheap USB TV Tuner (and prob a decent portable aerial, the ones that come with cheap USB TV Tuners are OK if you live in a strong signal area, but you might need something a bit better if not).

It comes with the side effect of being a decent SDR for tuning into all sorts of things not just your local TV stations :-)

Also get a cheap battery operated radio and a stock of batteries for it. Batteries don't last forever in storage, so replace them every now and then (check the expiry date on the pack) and don't leave the batteries in the radio but next to it (saves them leaking over the contacts, last thing you want to do when you NEED the radio is having to take it apart to clean the battery contacts or hunting for the batteries that fit it).

EDIT: Also something to put on your list, A decent flashlight. Your phone is great, but if you have a power outage then you will want to kepe that charge for actual phone calls.

Re: Six dead after tornadoes destroy Amazon warehouse near St Louis

#120
To this day i fail to understand how americans live in such low quality housing and yet are surprised each year a tornado comes. Sure one feels “richer” when paying no health care and living in cheap homes but it boggles the mind how this can be the norm. As a european i simply cant understand how such poverty became normalised and even more, celebrated, in “the richest country in the known universe”.
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