Don't Die In Your Car

Most people know how to seek shelter in their home or business when a storm hits, but many people don't know the best thing to do if they're in a car during a storm.

[Margaret]

Maybe there are 3rd graders interested in weather news. If so, they are not left out. There is a great rule to observe: If you have nothing good to say, "Say nothing!"

Thanks for all the weather "hints" ... if one person is saved, then, regardless of the quality of journalism, they understood well enough to avoid the killer tornado.

[Connie]

Margaret wrote:

Maybe there are 3rd graders interested in weather news. If so, they are not left out. There is a great rule to observe: If you have nothing good to say, "Say nothing!"
Thanks for all the weather "hints" ... if one person is saved, then, regardless of the quality of journalism, they understood well enough to avoid the killer tornado.

I thought the same as you as I read this "story".

[For the Record]

Most printed material is written for an 8th grade reading level in the US. It's the average reading level of most adults.

Doesn't matter how the article reads, it's the subject matter.

You'd be suprised at how many people don't know how to take care when bad weather hits when they are in their car. Most people keep driving and pay no attention. Most radio stations do not break in when tornado is on the ground. Most people think they know what to do, when in fact they lead themselves into further danger. 3 people were killed in Picher when the storm came upon them. A fourth is recovering. All were from Wagoner. Your car will be flipped and tossed like matchbox cars in an EF-1 tornado. Imagine what an EF-4 will do....

[Tommie Perkins]

Maaaaaannnnnn whatever! My Chevy Shortwide car outrun must Corvettes in this city on a straight quarter-mile. Ain't no tornado catchin' me and my truck. It ran 9s last summer at the track and it made me a cool $10,000 on side bets. Now what do you have to say to that KOTV?

[dissillusioned]

Well unfortunately ( or fortunately, however you want to look at it ) not everybody has a Chevy Shortwide, and we have seen cars and even semis tossed around like toys. So just every now and then it doesn't hurt to remind the public of this. Hopefuly you are never in a situation where you think you have to out run a tornado. But knowing that there is an alternative is useful info to have.

[Starr]

Just want to encourage KOTV to continue to be explicit in reporting storm locations for radio listeners. Several years ago we were driving down 169 from the North and picked up 87.7 FM around Oologah. Thanks to Jim Giles's explicit descriptions, we were able to determine that it was safer to get home to Stillwater via HWY 51 than by the Cimarron tpk.

Also, considering the global nature of citizenry today, perhaps it would be good to be more explicit when heavy storms and tornadoes go through areas far way, for example, instead of saying Northeastern KS, go ahead and say "Horton KS" or "Wyandotte KS" because local listeners are bound know someone or have family members in these places and explicitness could avoid anxiety, or raise proper concern.(been there)