Six dead after tornadoes destroy Amazon warehouse near St Louis

Re:Six dead after tornadoes destroy Amazon warehouse near St... by gizmo686 on Saturday December 11, 2021 @07:55PM (#29525977)

What is the counter factual where the workers' don't risk their lives? My intuition is that an Amazon warehouse is safer than a typical home during a tornado. And many homes were completely destroyed during this event as well. With the benifit of hindsight, it would have been better if no one was at that particular warehouse. But we can only say that because we know where the tornado hit with an accuracy that is no where near possible to achieve ahead of time.

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Re:Six dead after tornadoes destroy Amazon warehouse near St... by enragedcacti on Saturday December 11, 2021 @08:44PM (#29526263)

My understanding is that a house with a basement or other underground structure is likely far safer than the warehouse floor. Without a basement you are at much more risk but there are ways to personally mitigate risk like tornado straps and reinforced garage doors.

> The safest place to be is a reinforced concrete building, but if that’s not an option a basement really is your best bet. An analysis of the Oklahoma tornado outbreak of May 1999, which featured an EF5 (i.e., scale-topping monster) twister, found that out of 40 deaths, 133 severe injuries, and 265 minor injuries, the total harm inflicted on people holed up in basements amounted to just one minor injury.

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/217899/straight-dope...

not sure where they sourced from but shouldn't be too hard to find given the exact numbers quoted.

The ideal scenario is that the warehouse would have a reinforced concrete tornado shelter (or multiple given the size) and a mandatory work stoppage whenever a tornado emergency is declared.

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Re:Six dead after tornadoes destroy Amazon warehouse near St... by WalterBright on Saturday December 11, 2021 @09:21PM (#29526521)

My fear is the house will collapse and trap me in the basement.

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Re:Six dead after tornadoes destroy Amazon warehouse near St... by TylerE on Saturday December 11, 2021 @08:55PM (#29526337)

A warehouse is a very bad place to be... what kills you is flying objects, not the wind itself.

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Re:Six dead after tornadoes destroy Amazon warehouse near St... by jessaustin on Saturday December 11, 2021 @10:30PM (#29526882)

Or the roof could fall on you.

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