At the shelters
Daily Life in Kansas' "Tornado Corridor"
By Olivia BLANCO MULLINS AFP -
MANHATTAN (United States) (AFP) - Like the sunflower fields or the great plains, the crescendo of howling sirens due to a tornado is part of life in Kansas.
But Dale Walters, 72, says he doesn't count on authorities to warn him that a tornado is brewing. "I'm looking at the sky," he told AFP. "A great calm settles after the wind".
As a child, Walters was afraid of tornadoes, but like many people in that part of the central United States known as "the tornado corridor" he learned to live stoically with the deadly power of the winds.
“When you live in Kansas, you are prepared for it,” he adds. "You must not fear them, do your best ... and wait for them to pass."
Few here are crazy enough to defy the warning of the sirens and not rush into the shelters, despite the fascination of some who practice tornado hunting as a new form of tourism.
The destructive and blind force of a tornado is extraordinary: it can tear a house from its foundations, shave farms and precipitate in the air cattle and vehicles, sometimes found in fields distant several kilometers. Nothing can predict which direction it will take. A house can become a heap of rubble and the neighboring house barely shows a few scratches.
Kelly White, a 47-year-old teacher, on the advice of a contractor, built a "shelter" in the basement of her new home. The small piece of concrete was built into a part of the house that would otherwise have been filled with sand. The construction of the shelter did not cause him great expense and brought him peace. “Now I know exactly which room to put myself in. I think that's a good thing,” she said.
Kelly White grew up in Kansas without ever seeing a tornado, but began to worry when the city of Greensburg was more than 90% destroyed by a powerful tornado last year.
A record 137 tornadoes were recorded in Kansas last year causing 14 deaths. Previously from 1950 until 2007 the annual average was 57 tornadoes per year in the state, according to the Kansas Emergency Operations Agency.
Pat Collins manages the siren alarm system in Riley County. Out of the five computers lined up on his desk, he monitors the progress of the tornadoes and decides when to activate the 38 sirens. Remnants of the Cold War, they are powerful enough to be heard more than a kilometer around.
"The main thing is knowing how to decide when people are in real danger," he said after getting up at two in the morning to check in a nearby public shelter that no one was injured during the violent night hailstorm. “People here don't like sirens to be used lightly,” he says.
Having dinner interrupted by sirens or, for those who live in basement houses or caravans, having to travel miles to get to a public shelter is often a source of frustration for locals.
Local authorities also have to deal with the jaded attitude of those who have seen too many tornadoes pass by. "When visitors from elsewhere ask questions about tornadoes, the locals roll their eyes, as if it were exaggerated," says Tara Baillargeon, 32.
This librarian from Canada was fascinated by tornadoes when she arrived in Kansas six years ago. But after a tornado came close, she said she realized she would be safer in her basement with a radio and batteries. "What scares me is the chance of tornadoes. You never know where and when they are going to strike," she said..
