[Skywarn] Pilger, Nebraska tornado photo: Why stormchasing has become unethical.

Sat Jun 21 02:08:33 EDT 2014

And I can see that,  being almost being an EC for ARES/RACES for ham radio( soon I hope) , being advanced SKYWARN, as well as Red Cross for Disaster Services Technology radio comm, Disaster deployment team, I seen it first hand no one knew who the heck Hails angels were never herd of them come to find out they were a wanna b and decided to punch the core to follow there hero and smashed there truck all while filming it they r lucky they didn't get killed, we chase Local only meaning we know every road and back road and have a plan a b c out of there and would not go where we don't know ie out of state, people from out of state that do not know the roads the ins and outs of the area have no business here or going to a diff state, they only put us locals at risk, I always have back up several different forms of communications 2 different cell companies, ham radio, 2 diff wifi, and GPS all so that we can contact whom ever when ever, Mayflower Vilonia we lost both ATT and Verison cell phone service, leaving allot with out service even landline was down. Luckily we were in Vilonia behind it by 2 min and were able to do our search and rescue. We are 99.9% of the times the first responders on scene! one of our very own SKYWARN spotters who lives in hf he area was giving us ham radio reports up till the point he had to seek shelter his 19 yo college son did not make it and him and his second wife were in hosp for several weeks, he is also a ham radio op. It was very sad I seen allot of things as being a chasers pondered by local media as well as with Red Cross being deployed. That day we had out of towners cutting us off and running us off the road to try to beat us to the great "picture video" it's not worth it and not why I do it. I do it to help get that warning out there, I do it to help right after w search and rescue as a first responder, and I help after Ward as Red Cross because helping people is in my blood it's how I was raised. I don't ask for anything in return, a hug or smile from a client that lost everything or making a child laugh when they havnt laughed in a while is enough for me. These chasers that are only in it for selling the Picts and vids and being the next timmer is not right in so many ways and is gonna lead to more being killed or hurt, I can see more regulations and training coming down the pike because of what happened last year and this year.

Angi

Sent from my iPad

> On Jun 20, 2014, at 9:54 PM, Jay Cafasso <jay.cafasso at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> In my opinion these extreme chasers are the problem, why? They are
> unfortunately viewed as the communities role models, which again, in my
> opinion, is bull-sheet-rock and "extremely" dangerous. I call them the
> "Trimmer Types".
> 
> Reed Timmer who is very well educated, leads the pack racing around with
> that marketing stunt he calls the Dominator. Why am I so critical? The
> question I ask is, for what purpose does he chase? Trimmer is not Wurman,
> Trimmer is about fame and fortune not science. I see him as the PT Barnum
> of chasers and the new breed of spotter/chaser thinks he's a gas and its
> now a gas to punch the core with a 8000lb modified pick up truck. As one of
> his fan wrote when Trimmer reversed course from a twister, "Reed why are
> you backing away?" So why did he? Well, he's not a box of chocolates that's
> why and he is educated enough to know when to call the ball. The only
> Russell Stovers out there are the ones watching and mimicking his actions
> and are dumber than a that box of Russell Stovers not to know when to call
> the ball. That's the dangerous part and its showing itself 'live' on
> video...
> 
> Take for example the Washington, Illinois storm and the chaser who took his
> six year old son out for a family chase and had the twister drop down on
> them. Guy should have been arrested for child endangerment. The boy is
> caught on video screaming, " were going to die"! Or how about the homeowner
> who is video taping the storm while its eating his house with him and his
> family in it. This is coming from where? Whom is teaching this behavior?
> 
> As a retired responder who does not consider himself a veteran storm
> chaser, since most of my chases have been responses to the storms
> aftermath. I see things from a different perspective while I did not chase
> for fun thought many storm systems are plainly amazing and beautiful until
> they eat a town or city. Then you get to see the lethality of that once
> beautiful storm system. You also then get to see that 1000yds stare from
> the victims as well and the pain of death.
> 
> Its not a game...as many vets know...
> 
> Let me give you an example of another dangerous perspective with chasers
> like Timmer. At Mayflower, AR 10ft long Concrete Jersey Barriers were
> overturned by that twister. Those barriers weighted some 4000lbs and the
> structural engineers estimated winds at around 188mph struck at ground
> level to overturn them. Now the vertical profile of those barrier is much
> different than the Dominator. Reed is a smart guy though and knows the
> limitations of that vehicle, while the twister he did punch was on its down
> cycle with winds lowered when he entered.. I would love to have the wind
> impact gang at Texas Tech put that vehicle through its paces.
> 
> However, Trimmer types are not the only problem. Chasers and spotters have
> created their own social groups mimicking emergency management agencies.
> Just visit Zello... Chief One, Deputy Chief, Incident Commander, radar
> specialist etc... Then we have fragmented Skywarn groups that have more
> drama associated with them than Act II of a Shakespearian play and
> Shakespeare himself could not dream much of this drama up.
> 
> Yes there are some very excellent Skywarn groups out there along with some
> great spotters and chasers who preform a great service, but they are not
> the majority anymore today, unfortunately. We then have a under funded
> emergency management system trying to re-engineer itself from the Bin Laden
> witch hunt back to disasters.
> 
> What we have is a fragmented mess... and I know that many WCM's and EM's
> are all not happy campers..
> 
> Its going to take the veteran spotter/chaser community to regain control,
> coordinate between agencies and put things back in order before state
> legislators do it for all of us. No easy task I might add...and of course
> this is my opinion...
> 
> Jay Cafasso
> 12559 N400E
> Wheatfield, IN 46392 USA
> Cell: 479.866.9579 Fax: 651-691-2608
> Home GPS - Lat 41.19509, Long -86.96737
> 
> www.facebook.com/jay.cafasso.7
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> http://windhazard.davidoprevatt.com/blog/
> 
> "The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the
> wrong reason."   Murder in the Cathedral - St. Thomas Becket.
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>> On Jun 20, 2014 7:59 PM, "Lloyd Colston" <kc5fm at juno.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> On Fri, Jun 20, 2014 at 9:29 AM, Standorroh <standorroh at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> In his article he also personally attacked Reed Timmer.  Evidently, he
>> has
>>> never seem him break off chasing to help in rescue efforts.
>> 
>> 
>> Mr. Timmer got hammered on the WX-Chase list ...
>> https://lists.illinois.edu/lists/info/wx-chase ... because of it too.
>> 
>> He broke off the chase to "help" and showed video of his efforts ... in
>> cutoffs and flip-flops ... standard equipment for trained Community
>> Emergency Response Team folks ... NOT.
>> 
>> There's plenty of blame to spread around ... media for encouraging
>> untrained people ... chasers for modeling unsafe behavior ... Emergency
>> Managers for failing to adopt Skywarn as the LOCAL program it was designed
>> to be.
>> 
>> When one points one finger, there's three pointing back.
>> 
>> Lets learn from the mistakes of others and do better.  After all, I won't
>> live long enough to make all the mistakes all by myself.
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> Lloyd Colston   director
>> Altus Emergency Management
>> Altus, OK      http://www.cityofaltus.org
>> Phone:  580.482.8333
>> Fax:  580.482.4738
>> 
>> "I'ts better to be informed than it is to be afraid."
>> 
>> http://twitter.com/altusready
>> http://altusem.blogspot.com
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