Fox 45 weatherman Jamie Simpson, in Dayton, Ohio, got fed up with his viewing audience when they complained about a special tornado report interrupting a broadcast of “The Bachelorette.”
Dayton is tornado country and they’d been having a lot of them: “This is a dangerous situation, okay?” Simpson said. Yeah, man, but, like, y’know, you interrupted the program!
The tornado warning had only just begun when Bachelorette viewers began to hit the social media with their gripes. The weatherman could hardly believe it.
I am not persuaded that there’s any such word as bachelorette in the English language; and if there is, there shouldn’t be.
Anyway, Bachelorette fans wanted the network to stop the tornado warnings and go back to the show. Sort of like people in Pompeii complaining about the lictors interrupting a gladiatorial swordfight to warn them that Mt. Vesuvius was erupting. And getting booed for it.
No quokkas were involved in the incident in Dayton.
Just another “benfit” of the social media age.
Oh, yes, who cares if our area gets blown off the map so long as we can
sit here, put our minds in neutral and just be comfortable. Until it hits us,
that is– who cares about other people.
Well, to be fair, there have been many false alarms in recent years, and sometimes people figure that the boy is just crying “Wolf” again to get viewer ratings. Unfortunately, this time the wolf really did come out of the forest — or at least the clouds — around Dayton.
Our tornado sirens in Columbus started going off at 11:30pm that night and continued until 1:30am, but the tornadoes apparently went around us. Some of the people in my building went down to the underground garage for the duration, but I was so exhausted that I didn’t even get out of bed. I just commended my soul to the Lord just in case, and prayed that Iggy wouldn’t get hurt. Okay, that may have been foolhardy of me. But as I say, we’ve had a lot of false alarms, this was my third night in a row of having my sleep broken, and I just couldn’t bring myself to get dressed and go to the garage.
On second thought, I did get out of bed briefly. Early on, I peeked out the window (despite all the warnings to stay away from windows) to see how threatening the sky looked. I couldn’t see any incipient rotation — and across the street in the lighted windows of the fitness center, I saw someone jogging away on a treadmill while probably watching the tornado warnings on his phone or the TV. So I figured if he wasn’t worried, I wouldn’t be, either. And I went back to bed. Someday, I suppose, the wolf will come out of the clouds and devour me. But as my friend Hamlet once said, “The readiness is all.”
Well, you know what would happen if they didn’t issue warnings, and then a tornado struck…
Well, you know what would happen if they didn’t issue warnings, and then a tornado struck…
I’m thinking of those Italian scientists, a couple years ago [I’ve got it somewhere in the archives, here], who were brought up on criminal charges for failing to issue an earthquake warning–indeed, for failing to predict the earthquake.
Nostradamus seems to have had an easier time of it–probably because his predictions were vague enough to mean just about anything.
It’s annoying alright. Our local station just backs up all the shows that were interrupted. Only problem for me is I record all that I watch (to avoid commercials) so I don’t get the endings of the program. Small price to pay for protection.
We have been under a severe thunderstorm warnings today but not tornadoes. So far, just a lot of noise and loads of rain which is not good because the Arkansas River has already flooded over 1,000 homes and businesses. We even made the national news shows (not the way we would choose to be featured).
This post hits close to home for me–literally. I was part of that viewing area (though on a different channel at the time), and my town of Beavercreek got hit with an EF3 Monday night. Luckily my little neighborhood was spared, or they’d probably be burying me this week. I’d have likely died of fear while huddled in my basement! Tornadoes are no joke, and I applaud that weatherman for calling people out on their selfishness.
There was so much debris afterward they were using snow plows to clear the highway and other roads. Many damaged or destroyed homes and businesses, people hurt, whole neighborhoods evacuated, others still with no power 2 days later, and boil advisories for most of the area because the water plants went down. You can’t find a bottle of water to buy in any store right now.
Only one death. I hate to say thankfully, but without those diligent weather reporters it could have been far worse. I think they are saying 11 separate tornadoes hit our area from that storm. Was really scary and I hope we don’t have a night like that again anytime soon! Any prayers you can spare for this region would be welcome as we clean up and rebuild. I’m sure that weatherman has gotten lots of thank yous since Monday. At least I hope so. He deserves every one.
Oh, weavingword, how terrible! And I’m sorry if I sounded flippant. Usually I do get scared and take precautions — but so far my area of Columbus has been spared, and I really was exhausted the other night. Besides, the accuweather update on my phone was saying that the dangerous-looking clouds were over OSU and moving east at 35mph, and my downtown apartment is 4 miles almost-directly south of that, so I figured the storm would go past me before it really developed. Yes, yes, foolhardy — I’ve already admitted it. And I’ve lived in another tornado alley before (Fort Worth) so I should know better. But….
I’ve been keeping all the tornado-hit areas in prayer, and supporting the ministries that have rushed to help. Praise be to God that you’re safe.
No worries, Phoebe. I took no offense to your reply. I have been annoyed before at attempts to hype incoming weather for ratings, playing on fears, which isn’t nice! This was just not one of those nights. As soon as they said there was a large tornado confirmed on the ground I knew it was bad.
Coming from Texas though, even this was probably a minor event. I don’t think I could ever live there, or Oklahoma, or in the plains states. Glad Columbus was spared, and nice to see a fellow Ohioan here. 🙂 Thanks for the prayers and support. So far everyone I know personally is safe. However, an acquaintance of mine knows others who have lost everything in this storm, so prayers are definitely needed.
Here in NJ, we don’t have tornados–not really serious ones. So they hype our snowstorms.
They do that here too! And for some reason people go nuts over it. Any rumor of a snowflake and the bread and milk are cleared off store shelves. Don’t ask me why bread and milk–it’s weird! Snow rarely gets deep here or lasts more than a day or two. Coming from the Cleveland area where we regularly got buried in 1-2 feet (or more) of lake effect snow, the panic over 2 inches that will melt in a day is mind bogglingly ridiculous.
You wonder–how many times does this have to happen before people learn it’s bogus? This is Noo Joisey–we’re not gonna get snowed in for 16 weeks and be reduced to cannibalism. We aren’t even going to be snowed in for 16 hours. But no–buy up all the milk, all the bread, all the batteries, and all the toilet paper. It really does make you wonder if human intelligence is vastly oversold.
ROFL! So it’s not just here! You may be right about human intelligence…or at the least our capacity for basic common sense! I shake my head in disbelief all winter long.
Glad you made it safely through, Allison!
Me too! 🙂