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Six dead after tornadoes destroy Amazon warehouse near St Louis

reuters.com

301–310 of 367 posts

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

#301

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…

One of the many reasons I love the ABC (our national broadcaster in Australia) is that everybody knows that they will have the info you need in an emergency - on TV, radio, online, and social media, round the clock.

Unfortunately I have to listen to them to find out. Our emergency alert system is basically garbage. If there was any kind of sudden emergency like a tornado (this becoming a real threat in Sydney and Perth it’s not common but i hear the phrase “mini-tornado” way too frequently over the last few years) Then our systems are completely inadequate for promptly alerting the population at risk. It’s scraping by for bushfires and other big long lasting dangers, but it’s utterly inadequate for “urgent emergencies”.

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

#303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> unless something changes People will be replaced by robots, this is what will change. It is already happening. McDonalds is canonical example of that.

That is there best argument to fight now for good conditions, the more robots in the future the less leverage to negotiate. On a second note, if robots replace humans. Who is going to buy products? Because humans without jobs do not have money. Why have warehouses if nobody can but anything? That hypothetical future were robots replace workers is way more complicated that many people thinks.

> On a second note, if robots replace humans. Who is going to buy products? Because humans without jobs do not have money. Why have warehouses if nobody can but anything? That hypothetical future were robots replace workers is way more complicated that many people thinks.

Production will shift towards serving those with wealth versus those that need to work to survive. It's already happening to the housing market.

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

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> A reinforced concrete should've been easily capable of withstanding a hurricane. Hurricanes are kinda wimpy, though. Their main claim to fame is sustained winds. A tornado can pack winds pushing 300 mph. Good luck building a warehouse that can take a direct hit from that.

plus it’s not always the wind that does the damage, it’s what the wind picks up and throws at you

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

#305
post #295

> It was unclear how many workers were still missing, as Amazon did not have an exact count of people working in the sorting and delivery center at the time the tornadoes hit, Whiteford said. I find this hard to accept. They keep track of workers' productivity by the second, but they don't know how many were working there at that time??

This is bullshit indeed. Amazon is terrible.

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

#306
post #161

I don’t understand a few things, as they aren’t covered in the article, that I saw. Were there no warnings for the severe weather storm that would have prevented people coming in to work or allowed them to leave work early? When I was working in the office, we were usually forced (literally security swept the building) to leave when severe winter weather was coming in a few times. Why doesn’t Amazon, in the middle of…

Tornadoes aren't hurricanes... There aren't hours and days of advanced notice. Only a few minutes. You can't shut down for every thunder storm on the astronomical chance it'll turn into a tornado and head in your direction. The article did somewhat address your questions: "Amazon said all employees were normally notified and directed to move to a designated, marked shelter-in-place location when a site was made aware…

I know. I’m familiar with severe weather that produces tornadoes.

People hiding in bathrooms or anywhere they could doesn’t sound like there were shelters appropriate for tornados or even a plan in place or if there was one it wasn’t used.

It’s inexcusable for people to die on the job like this, especially on a job that doesn’t give you easy access to live information, due to the work environment, or even even the ability to hear or see what’s going on outside.

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

#307
post #161

I don’t understand a few things, as they aren’t covered in the article, that I saw. Were there no warnings for the severe weather storm that would have prevented people coming in to work or allowed them to leave work early? When I was working in the office, we were usually forced (literally security swept the building) to leave when severe winter weather was coming in a few times. Why doesn’t Amazon, in the middle of…

>Were there no warnings for the severe weather storm that would have prevented people coming in to work or allowed them to leave work early? There were warnings. Warnings that skipping work would get one fired[1]. And since the warehouse was not closed that day, the warning was: clock in on time, or else, weather be damned. >When I was working in the office... Well there's a difference between how office employees ar…

All of that was my point.

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

#308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A reinforced concrete should've been easily capable of withstanding a hurricane. Hurricanes are kinda wimpy, though. Their main claim to fame is sustained winds. A tornado can pack winds pushing 300 mph. Good luck building a warehouse that can take a direct hit from that.

plus it’s not always the wind that does the damage, it’s what the wind picks up and throws at you

“It’s not that the wind is blowing, it’s what the wind is blowing. If you get hit with a Volvo, it doesn’t really matter how many sit-ups you did that morning.” — Ron White

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

#309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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? ;-)

I'm not sure it's what he said. Mine has a radio.

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

#310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I'm not sure it's what he said. Mine has a radio.

wow look at this guy, got the upgraded entertainment package with AM/FM radio!

(I kid, seems to be something that changes with the model year)

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