The following is a reprint from the Salina Journal (Kansas). I think it is important to get this information out and for people to start thinking about this issue.
It is just going to get worst.
I am not sure what the answer is to the problem of the storm chasers.
Some of them need to be out on the roads. The NWS people. Sky/Warn people.
None of them have the right to speed. They should be ticketed for speeding.
If they are speeding and failing to pull over for police, fire and EMS then they should be arrested and when they go to court the judge should have the ability to take their cars and their equipment (radios, cameras, computers).
You know my feelings about the news media… If they are news media people the police should have the right to just force them off the road and shoot them in heads and leave them along the road as road kill.
If I was the driver of a fire truck and they refused to pull over I would be tempted to give them a little bump and move them off the road.
“4/16/2012
By TIM UNRUH
Chancy Smith likes footage and photos of tornadoes and other weather disasters, but the pursuit of them Saturday night left him frazzled.
A high probably for tornadoes in north-central Kansas brought a convoy of storm chasers to the area.
During some perilous moments, Smith, director of Dickinson County Emergency Management, said the chasers got in the way of protecting the public.
"It was like a funeral procession, bumper to bumper," he said. "It was horrible."
Motoring down gravel roads north of Solomon while a tornado was bearing down on farmsteads, Smith said there were small "beater cars" with license tags from out of county and other states, that would not yield to emergency vehicles.
"We were going on Solomon Road with lights and sirens, and they wouldn't get over," he said. "Some were driving 60 or 70 mph, looking for videos or photos, and they didn't even notice us."
Some were locals out to gawk at the storm, Smith said, but most of the traffic snarl from an estimated 350 vehicles, was thanks to storm chasers.
"Some of them help communities by calling in, but they don't help us," he said.
Near a natural gas compressor station that was damaged by a tornado on Kansas Highway 18 in Ottawa County, the chasers put themselves in possible danger where power poles were snapped.
"Those morons were driving over power lines," Smith said. "I was worried that we would have to do rescues."
He was racing to a house that was reportedly destroyed at K-18 and Solomon Road but was delayed by chasers taking their half out of the middle of the road.
"We were trying to get there to render assistance," Smith said. "Some of those cars got stuck in the mud."
Once he arrived and learned the report was unfounded, he said storm chasers pulled onto private property and tore up muddy driveways.
Exuberance of some may have heightened because some storms hit during daylight hours.
"It was a photogenic tornado," Smith said. "People saw it and felt safe. They were just utterly idiotic."
Others who worked the weekend storms understand Smith's frustrations.
Keith Haberer doesn't point to many issues with storm chasers since joining the storm spotting business in 1997, but the director of emergency management in Russell and Ellsworth counties can relate to Smith's experiences.
"They do tend to clog up roads and highways, especially when emergency crews are trying to get through," Haberer said. "On the other hand, they are sometimes the first to spot tornadoes and help us get warnings out sooner."
Storm chasers provide a lot of valuable information, said Suzanne Fortin, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service Wichita office. But she acknowledged a down side Sunday while surveying storm damage.
"(Storm chasers) do help us with reports, but they also can be problematic with emergency management," Fortin said. "Some of them aren't aware that they can be more of a hindrance than a help."
One way to force storm chasers to behave might be to ticket them, Smith, but they usually are noticed when emergency workers have higher priorities.
"I think they just know we don't have time to deal with them," he said. "We couldn't have a response Saturday with that many of them on the road. It was just crazy."
-- Reporter Tim Unruh can be reached at 822-1419 or by email at [email protected].”
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