It's just across the river from my hometown; the entire Metro St. Louis area had a few tornado sirens last night, as a wall of warnings swept across our region.
It seems like the worst tornado was this one that ripped through the warehouse (other pictures show some trees that had foliage stripped); you don't mess around with a tornado warning. It can drop pretty much anywhere along a storm front, or even sometimes in the middle or tail end of a front, especially when all the atmospheric conditions aligned like they did yesterday.
There was a much larger storm that seemed to have a 200 mi or so path through Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas and I think Ohio(?) last night. Some of these storms are still getting severe warnings this morning!
When I was a kid, a "Tornado Warning" meant that a tornado had been spotted and was something you took pretty seriously. There was another advisory called a "Tornado Watch" that meant conditions were favorable for tornados to develop.
Now, it seems that every semi-heavy thunderstorm comes with a "Tornado Warning" based on radar returns and other metrics. They happen so often it's hard to get too worked up about them. Another case of boy who cried wolf.
Strangely, tornados are largely a phenomenon a of the USA. Canada (the worlds second biggest country), has about 100 tornadoes per year putting it in second place; the US has 1200. See [1].
The most powerful tornados are the terrifying F5 category ones. The US has had 59 of those. Throughout the rest of the world, no other country has had more than two. See [2].
More precisely, most of these F5 tornadoes have happened in just a few states, Iowa, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas have had six each, and Alabama has had seven. See [3].
Amazon is going to get sued hardcore, guaranteed. The issue is that nobody had to die. Even kids’ summer camps in tornado prone zones have this figured out. The summer camp I went to had 2 rooms in the camp’s gym that were formal tornado shelters. The gym, with these tornado shelter rooms, were built in 2001. The entire camp (300+ people) could fit in these rooms. Everyone could technically sleep in there too, but obviously they would split us up into boys/girls rooms and the counselors would still be watching us the whole time.
The 2 rooms themselves were basically a 12” enclosure (including the ceilings). There were also concrete pillars in the room to reinforce the structure. During normal times we used them for various activities. But, at least during a couple of summers, we had to evacuate (from the cabins or wherever) there. The program staff (people in charge of the camp) were always monitoring the meteorological radar 24/7.
This was in North Texas, which is tornado alley. The camp was an hour north of the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex.
Amazon warehouses are Tilt-Up Construction. Basically 4-to-6-inch thick cast concrete panels on a grid on metal tubes as joists. Support pillars with basic trusses, and a roof tying it together.
You lose a ton of stability once that roof is gone. You lose a truss or a few pillars, and I'd imagine it came down like a house of concrete cards very, very quickly after the first wall section fell.
It has no chance against a tornado direct hit. You need a dedicated shelter structure for that.
I understand the concern about tornados, but living in the Midwest I gotta be honest I have zero concerns. Tornados are rare and might only be 50-200ft wide.
I’m much more concerned about general high winds. I live in a neighborhood amongst the fields and we regularly get 50-70 mph sustained winds with 70-90 mph gusts. We get these storms 2-4 times a year. Last night we had 40 mph winds with 55mph gusts.
To put it in perspective I’ve watched my neighbors fence blow apart and slam cars and neighbors windows/walls. Watched large play sets roll down the street, etc. our HOA had to put in rules about using iron / aluminum fences for this reason.
A couple years ago we had a thunderstorm & snow storm with high winds and temperatures were just right so everything built up a nice 1-2 inches of ice so power went out. Again way worse than tornadoes.
Edit 2: Hmm. Maybe not. Looks like I was wrong initially, and the fact this tornado hit the same night as an Amazon warehouse got leveled by another tornado is just the world's shittiest coincidence.
It's not uncommon for a severe storm system like this to produce multiple tornados. The "quad-state tornado" was farther to the south, cutting across the bootheel of Missouri, while the one that hit the Amazon warehouse was more north, near St. Louis.
St. Louis is ~200 miles to the north (Edwardsville is an Illinois suburb in metro east). The tornado you're referencing tracked from Arkansas east, different tornado.
Dumb question, but is it even feasible to build such a building in a "tornado-proof" way? From how the damage looks, that warehouse must have only been metal walls and roofing instead of solid concrete or bricks...
I’ve been in several buildings designed to withstand tornados. Anything above around typically is only designed to survive and F3 or F4. The ones I’ve seen have a strong outer shell of steel and concrete with some angles to help deflect wind. There’s then an inner shell of steel designed to keep what ever is inside safe. The outer shell will let some debris through but it won’t penetrate the inner concrete and steel shell.
To put it in perspective an F5 (strongest tornado) will leave just dirt behind and all structures, vegetation, and soil will be gone.
Here’s an example of an F5 aftermath in Illinois in the 90s
It's definitely feasible, you basically just end up with something very similar to a military bunker. The structure ends up being mostly underground and the entrance or above ground areas are mostly made of reinforced concrete with heavy steel doors, no windows, etc.
Financially, no it is not feasible. In the parts of the US where tornadoes are common, any particular spot is hit by a tornado on average once every 2,500 years. Of those tornadoes, 80% of them will be EF0 or EF1 intensity. An EF1 tornado will cause some roof damage and break windows but it won't tear the roof completely off or collapse walls.
So it doesn't really make sense to spend money for something that happens once every few thousand years and is typically pretty minor when it happens. Especially given that it is usually completely predictable when it happens. Tornadoes don't suddenly appear out of a blue sky. There were warnings for the last few days that storms capable of producing tornadoes were likely for the areas that were hit last night. When the storms were going on, the TV networks interrupted programming and had the weather forecasters tell where the storms were and where they were headed next. Tornado sirens would have been going off long before the tornadoes hit. People would be getting texts on their phones warning them to take cover.
If you're in a well-built structure, you're going to be fine in most tornadoes. Even for EF2 or EF3, you would most likely be OK even in a house without a basement if you took shelter in an interior closet on the ground floor. If you're in a mobile home, you're toast. For an EF4, you have a decent chance if you are in an interior room in a basement. So for the vast majority of tornadoes, which are already rare, there isn't much reason so spend money to protect property when there is already a way to protect lives.
For EF5 tornadoes, it would be challenging to build anything other than an underground bunker to withstand them. They are incredibly rare, Wikipedia says 59 in the US since 1950. An EF5 tornado doesn't just level a house, it rips it from the foundation, sends it flying through the air and shatters it into a million pieces. Here's what an EF5 tornado does to a house: https://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/f5.htm. It can rip the asphalt from a roadway and send it flying through the air. If you're in a building in the path of an EF5 tornado, you are probably best off following the advice my redneck step dad gave me when I was a kid for what to do in the case of a nuclear attack. He said to head down to the basement to an interior hallway, crouch down on the floor, tuck my head down between my knees as far as I could, and kiss my ass goodbye.
Some types of tornado proof homes are not the big square concrete type, like shown in the sibling comment article, but dome homes made out of concrete. The obvious issues are that most furniture doesn’t fit well, wall hangings don’t work correctly, and putting in interior walls is wasteful, while modifying anything for electric or water is quite difficult without careful planning.
I'd guess those exterior walls are 6-12" thick poured concrete, similar to this[1]. You can see in the 6th picture almost all of the missing wall is still there and intact, it's just lying flat on the ground. In the 12th picture you can see how thick they are compared to car wheels nearby.
You either need very thick castle kinds of walls or to sink underground and essentially build a big hobbit hole kind of construction where wind hits a gentle slope instead of a flat wall.
A building designed to take an 80 mph wind is just a lot different than one to take a 250mph wind. One is basically guaranteed and the other an extreme rarity.
I live in Nashville (moved from San Francisco in 2018) and this is the second Tornado scare I’ve had. The first in March of 2020 did significant damage in my last neighborhood of Germantown. The weather here in Tennessee still amazes and frankly scares me a bit. I’m just not used to it coming from California. Thankfully this time no real damage to my home or West side neighborhood.
Mentions of "tornado sirens" in these comments are triggering bad memories from my childhood in the Midwest. The house I grew up in had a tornado siren on our property, probably about 100 feet from my bedroom window. It was so f--king loud!!! And it felt like it last forever. Ugh!
I wonder what the insurance payout is for this? And the tax write-offs. Is it that simple, financially, just on a larger scale? Or is the scale too big for normal processes.
At least one of the people who died inside the facility was a 29 years old maintenance worker. I do not know how predictable tornadoes such as this are, but I won't be surprised if these deaths could have been prevented.
When you hear a tornado warning, the advice is to shelter in place in the most structurally sound part of the building. Given that half of the building collapsed, there may not have been a safe place. Running away from tornadoes is not recommended, and you can't evacuate in advance of a storm because the region that tornados may hit is too large. Do you think there was a problem with how the building was built?
Tornados can be predicted in broad terms but are highly variable on the ground.
Weather forecasts can usually identify that the conditions favorable for tornados are happening. That is announced as a Tornado Watch. If someone sees a tornado, they will issue a Tornado Warning, usually for the whole county. They will sound sirens if available. People are urged to take shelter, ideally underground. Otherwise they are told to shelter in the most substantial part of a building. Many people do take shelter but others decide to tough it out.
Tornados are relatively small compared to hurricanes and earthquakes but they are very intense within a few hundred foot wide area where they tear everything apart and blow it around with 300mph winds doing more destruction with that debris. They move in erratic directions and can pickup and hop around. There can be multiple tornados at one time.
Any one person is not a great risk of harm but anyone in the path of the tornado is at great risk. People living in the area have been through tornado warnings before without harm. This can lead to people assuming that they will be fine and not taking precautions. Chances are they are right but if they are wrong… it goes very wrong.
And unsurprisingly, NBC News quoted a women working at a nearby Amazon facility confirming that they never had any tornado drills nor had they sheltered in place for any of the warnings they've had in the past:
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/amazon-worker...
That is a very bad take. What you are seeing are only those trucks that survived--because the trucks that didn't survive are too badly mangled to identify as trucks. If you look at some of the later pictures in this photo deck (https://fox2now.com/news/illinois/photos-tornado-destroys-ed...), you can make out several trucks whose occupants would be dead. At least one truck appears to be sheared cleanly in two. The trucks that survived appear to have done so largely because they were out of the main debris field.
I grew up in the northern Midwest, where tornados happen semi-regularly. If you’re facing a tornado and in a vehicle, you’re supposed to abandon the vehicle and get to a ditch or some other low point that provides solid sideways protection and lay down as flat as you can.
Tornados are weirdly destructive. Some things that get directly hit survive when they shouldn’t. Vehicles are not built to take the damage even a small tornado brings.
Interesting logistics problem, I wonder how good Amazon is about re-routing deliveries from other warehouses if a local one goes down? This is bad time of the year to be losing a distribution center.
While you bring up an interesting question, it's important to note that people died in that building. Perhaps some compassion is in order.
To answer your question though, unless the item someone ordered is unique and only stored in that warehouse, they will probably just mark the warehouse as down and the system will simply route around it and increase delivery estimates for the people who were served by that warehouse. They will probably redeploy the surviving trucks to nearby warehouses to handle the load.
[+] [-] geerlingguy|4 years ago|reply
It seems like the worst tornado was this one that ripped through the warehouse (other pictures show some trees that had foliage stripped); you don't mess around with a tornado warning. It can drop pretty much anywhere along a storm front, or even sometimes in the middle or tail end of a front, especially when all the atmospheric conditions aligned like they did yesterday.
There was a much larger storm that seemed to have a 200 mi or so path through Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas and I think Ohio(?) last night. Some of these storms are still getting severe warnings this morning!
[+] [-] throwawayboise|4 years ago|reply
Now, it seems that every semi-heavy thunderstorm comes with a "Tornado Warning" based on radar returns and other metrics. They happen so often it's hard to get too worked up about them. Another case of boy who cried wolf.
[+] [-] todd8|4 years ago|reply
The most powerful tornados are the terrifying F5 category ones. The US has had 59 of those. Throughout the rest of the world, no other country has had more than two. See [2].
More precisely, most of these F5 tornadoes have happened in just a few states, Iowa, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas have had six each, and Alabama has had seven. See [3].
[1] https://the-weather-station.com/countries-with-most-tornadoe...
[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_F5_and_EF5_tornadoes
[3] https://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/f5torns.html
[+] [-] macintux|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] disabled|4 years ago|reply
The 2 rooms themselves were basically a 12” enclosure (including the ceilings). There were also concrete pillars in the room to reinforce the structure. During normal times we used them for various activities. But, at least during a couple of summers, we had to evacuate (from the cabins or wherever) there. The program staff (people in charge of the camp) were always monitoring the meteorological radar 24/7. This was in North Texas, which is tornado alley. The camp was an hour north of the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex.
[+] [-] MrFoof|4 years ago|reply
You lose a ton of stability once that roof is gone. You lose a truss or a few pillars, and I'd imagine it came down like a house of concrete cards very, very quickly after the first wall section fell.
It has no chance against a tornado direct hit. You need a dedicated shelter structure for that.
[+] [-] lettergram|4 years ago|reply
I’m much more concerned about general high winds. I live in a neighborhood amongst the fields and we regularly get 50-70 mph sustained winds with 70-90 mph gusts. We get these storms 2-4 times a year. Last night we had 40 mph winds with 55mph gusts.
To put it in perspective I’ve watched my neighbors fence blow apart and slam cars and neighbors windows/walls. Watched large play sets roll down the street, etc. our HOA had to put in rules about using iron / aluminum fences for this reason.
A couple years ago we had a thunderstorm & snow storm with high winds and temperatures were just right so everything built up a nice 1-2 inches of ice so power went out. Again way worse than tornadoes.
[+] [-] actually_a_dog|4 years ago|reply
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/quad-state-tornado-cros...
Edit: Yes, this is the same tornado: https://meaww.com/tornado-warning-amazon-warehouse-edwardsvi...
Edit 2: Hmm. Maybe not. Looks like I was wrong initially, and the fact this tornado hit the same night as an Amazon warehouse got leveled by another tornado is just the world's shittiest coincidence.
[+] [-] Tarball10|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] almost_usual|4 years ago|reply
Edit:
https://twitter.com/ellenbacca/status/1469542791659368449?s=...
St. Louis is ~200 miles to the north (Edwardsville is an Illinois suburb in metro east). The tornado you're referencing tracked from Arkansas east, different tornado.
Another source https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/12/11/us/tornado-ma...
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] lightlyused|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mschuster91|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lettergram|4 years ago|reply
To put it in perspective an F5 (strongest tornado) will leave just dirt behind and all structures, vegetation, and soil will be gone.
Here’s an example of an F5 aftermath in Illinois in the 90s
https://www.weather.gov/images/lot/pastevents/1990/Aug28/pla...
[+] [-] Merad|4 years ago|reply
It's also possible to make tornado proof residential homes, but they're expensive and not very appealing: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tornado-proof-homes-oklahoma_...
[+] [-] rufus_foreman|4 years ago|reply
So it doesn't really make sense to spend money for something that happens once every few thousand years and is typically pretty minor when it happens. Especially given that it is usually completely predictable when it happens. Tornadoes don't suddenly appear out of a blue sky. There were warnings for the last few days that storms capable of producing tornadoes were likely for the areas that were hit last night. When the storms were going on, the TV networks interrupted programming and had the weather forecasters tell where the storms were and where they were headed next. Tornado sirens would have been going off long before the tornadoes hit. People would be getting texts on their phones warning them to take cover.
If you're in a well-built structure, you're going to be fine in most tornadoes. Even for EF2 or EF3, you would most likely be OK even in a house without a basement if you took shelter in an interior closet on the ground floor. If you're in a mobile home, you're toast. For an EF4, you have a decent chance if you are in an interior room in a basement. So for the vast majority of tornadoes, which are already rare, there isn't much reason so spend money to protect property when there is already a way to protect lives.
For EF5 tornadoes, it would be challenging to build anything other than an underground bunker to withstand them. They are incredibly rare, Wikipedia says 59 in the US since 1950. An EF5 tornado doesn't just level a house, it rips it from the foundation, sends it flying through the air and shatters it into a million pieces. Here's what an EF5 tornado does to a house: https://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/f5.htm. It can rip the asphalt from a roadway and send it flying through the air. If you're in a building in the path of an EF5 tornado, you are probably best off following the advice my redneck step dad gave me when I was a kid for what to do in the case of a nuclear attack. He said to head down to the basement to an interior hallway, crouch down on the floor, tuck my head down between my knees as far as I could, and kiss my ass goodbye.
[+] [-] samhain|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kevan|4 years ago|reply
[1] https://www.mppengineers.com/index_files/Page369.htm
[+] [-] colechristensen|4 years ago|reply
You either need very thick castle kinds of walls or to sink underground and essentially build a big hobbit hole kind of construction where wind hits a gentle slope instead of a flat wall.
A building designed to take an 80 mph wind is just a lot different than one to take a 250mph wind. One is basically guaranteed and the other an extreme rarity.
[+] [-] qbasic_forever|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] almost_usual|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] amznbad|4 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] nodesocket|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jimt1234|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Copernicron|4 years ago|reply
My heart goes out to the families of those involved. This would be devastating at the best of times.
[+] [-] Tempest1981|4 years ago|reply
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/12/11/us/tornado-ma...
I know it's paywall'd, but I couldn't find any any other media outlet with a simple damage map like this.
[+] [-] Tempest1981|4 years ago|reply
https://images.app.goo.gl/2ME6uXYXHCATVGYT6
[+] [-] daenz|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] almog|4 years ago|reply
Source: https://twitter.com/AmeliaMtv/status/1469634726558412800
[+] [-] noodlenotes|4 years ago|reply
Here's an article with photos for anyone who doesn't want to watch the video: https://fox2now.com/news/illinois/photos-tornado-destroys-ed...
[+] [-] Tagbert|4 years ago|reply
Weather forecasts can usually identify that the conditions favorable for tornados are happening. That is announced as a Tornado Watch. If someone sees a tornado, they will issue a Tornado Warning, usually for the whole county. They will sound sirens if available. People are urged to take shelter, ideally underground. Otherwise they are told to shelter in the most substantial part of a building. Many people do take shelter but others decide to tough it out.
Tornados are relatively small compared to hurricanes and earthquakes but they are very intense within a few hundred foot wide area where they tear everything apart and blow it around with 300mph winds doing more destruction with that debris. They move in erratic directions and can pickup and hop around. There can be multiple tornados at one time.
Any one person is not a great risk of harm but anyone in the path of the tornado is at great risk. People living in the area have been through tornado warnings before without harm. This can lead to people assuming that they will be fine and not taking precautions. Chances are they are right but if they are wrong… it goes very wrong.
[+] [-] almog|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kordlessagain|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nerbert|4 years ago|reply
Edit: it’s a bad take, read below.
[+] [-] jcranmer|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kayodelycaon|4 years ago|reply
Tornados are weirdly destructive. Some things that get directly hit survive when they shouldn’t. Vehicles are not built to take the damage even a small tornado brings.
https://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/safety.html
[+] [-] voidfunc|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jedberg|4 years ago|reply
To answer your question though, unless the item someone ordered is unique and only stored in that warehouse, they will probably just mark the warehouse as down and the system will simply route around it and increase delivery estimates for the people who were served by that warehouse. They will probably redeploy the surviving trucks to nearby warehouses to handle the load.
[+] [-] smashed|4 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] Kye|4 years ago|reply
edit: https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-affiliates-we-are-...
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