Thinking Out Loud, Fast 6-3-13

Anderson, South Carolina

In the summer of 1976 I was sitting in a multi-screen theater complex in Omaha for an afternoon showing of The Battle of Midway, depicting the stalemate between American and Japanese forces in the Pacific. Sensurround was used to enhance the intense battle sequences about an hour into the film.

Sitting back about a third of the way on an aisle I happened to notice someone open the back door and whisper to a patron sitting nearby during the mid-point of this battle sequence. Surreal was the rate of speed with which the news of an impending real world disaster spread through the six hundred people in the auditorium; a very large tornado was on the ground to the west, drawing a bead on our location. Theater management herded everyone from the auditoriums into the lobby area and had them assume head’s down positions on the floor with rear-ends facing the windows where ominous blue green light suffused angry clouds. The only reason we lived to tell about it is the urban heat island effect causing convections in late afternoon; the tornado lifted from the ground for a short distance. We patrons were in that short space. A search of weather service records indicates this twister to have been an F4. The previous year another F4 did catastrophic damage to Omaha.

Theaters and gymnasiums with their lack of windows and any central supporting structures are especially vulnerable to tornadoes. The sudden drop in air pressure associated with intense tornadoes can provoke an explosive de-pressurization of these buildings; causing the walls to blow outward and the roof to simply drop in on the occupants. It’s better to risk a rear-end full of glass than a head flattened by a collapsed free span roof.

Yesterday I was working in my yard about 2 PM and noticed threatening skies with falling air pressure. I buttoned up what I was doing and went to the nearby community playhouse to do a pre-show raffle before our afternoon matinee. I would be dry and safe indoors, or would I?

I was sitting in the theater office while a live show was in progress to a full house. My phone activated at 4:04 PM advising me a tornado was on the ground, headed to my location, and to take shelter at once. Smart phones function the same as aircraft transponders and their locations are easily determined. The weather service is able to automatically generate appropriate warnings and send them to my phone. A couple of minutes later, variations of the same warning were sent over a radio in the office. I went outside to see a well formed wall cloud just to the west. Blue-green wall clouds to the west of one’s location are not a good thing. These tend to be fertile ground for the generation of tornadoes, especially if they are rotating. Tornadoes spawned in such clouds move to the northeast.

I was feeling we really needed to give the audience a head’s up especially since I felt we should open all exterior and interior doors in case a de-pressurization event was imminent. Several individuals with smart phones pulled up vector maps showing a probable tornado on the ground headed to our location from the south west. Reports were indicating a tornado was on the ground at New Hope Road and Highway 24, a location five miles to our southwest, the worst direction for us.

Several others working the front end of the theater did not want to tell the audience anything. They were insistent on this. They insisted nothing would happen. Torrential rain was falling and the well-formed wall cloud was now concealed behind a rain veil. Several days ago a large tornado in Oklahoma was concealed behind a rain veil. Five people drove into it and were killed. Another dozen or so died.

I stayed near the front entry watching for any evidence of rotation in the clouds. A minute later the tornado sirens were activated. I felt an overpowering need to tell people inside the auditorium with its free span concrete ceiling of an impending life-threatening event, if several reports proved correct. Telling a full auditorium a tornado was drawing a bead on them would be akin to screaming “fire!” There would be risk of pandemonium. Should I defy those managing the theater and take it upon myself to go into the auditorium and announce a life threatening scenario developing outside? I feel pretty certain these other individuals had little knowledge about the behavior of free-span structures in decompression events and I could be certain none of them had previously been in auditoriums during an evolving tornado event.

Based on the data at hand, I went into the auditorium and made it known to the patrons and actors on stage warnings were in place for an impending life-threatening event at our location. A couple of those working the front of the theater were not happy about this. The response of the patrons and actors was really nothing short of astounding – no panic, no hysteria. One young couple left calmly, indicating their three small children were with a sitter under one of the storm vectors. Another individual left as well. After the shortest interval, the actors picked up their lines where they left off and completed the show without event. The show was exceedingly well received and the interruption appears to have caused no damage to the experience of those presenting the show or those laughing in their seats. When the curtain call was concluded; the torrential rains had ceased entirely and patrons could walk to their cars without umbrellas.

At the end of the day the wall cloud was confirmed to have had at least one tornado embedded in it and its location was four miles to our southwest, the most dangerous direction. A storm moving at thirty miles an hour would cover that distance in eight minutes. One of our wheel-chair-bound patrons living four miles west returned home after the show returned home to find significant damage on her street. Workers have been doing remediation work all day. Our patron was emphatic about being much happier and safer in the theater than in her house. She indicates she would have gone crazy in her house. The confirmed tornado did not stay on the ground; perhaps a heat island effect was occurring once again. Eventually it dissipated without causing catastrophic damage. The intense storms we experienced are remnants of the same super storms which have been raking across Oklahoma for days.

Hindsight is twenty-twenty and it’s effortless to draw conclusions about how an event should be handled with a complete set of data points, after the event has played out. Life usually does not offer hindsight or complete data. The management of the multiplex in Omaha could be chided for over-reacting and herding us all out. After all, nothing much happened thirty-seven years ago except for all of us getting a strong adrenaline rush. Nothing much happened yesterday. But in both cases the possibility of catastrophic scenarios was high, in fact, highly likely. Being told a tornado was on the ground four miles southwest was enough to get my attention and to feel compelled as one commenter stated “to give us a choice about our own safety.” Eating dinner with a dear friend tonight, he confirmed the touchdown location just four miles away, and to the southwest. Hindsight showed the information I had been getting from 4:04 PM to be correct, alas that information could not offer accurate predictions about heat islands. Happily, there was one and the tornado did not stay on the ground.

Moral dimensions emerge when one has to decide whether providing potentially too much information, embued with risk of panic and pandemonium vs. not allowing people to make informed decisions with potentially incalculable consequences is the lesser of two evils. Is causing concern, maybe even high grade anxiety, when an event fails to materialize a lesser evil than taking risk of said event materializing and causing far greater loss of life and limb because opportunity was not made to make even modest preparations? Our patrons could not hear the warning sirens and their cell phones were turned off as good theater goers make sure of. Do we risk a false positive rather than a false negative?

Is there an ethical hierarchy involved in preserving one’s ignorance and unfettered experience of entertainment versus putting them at Defcon One for a major life event? Does the opportunity to choose to climb under solid steel chairs attached to the floor and point one’s rear-end up during a period of high uncertainty compel full disclosure of evolving events? Interestingly, a number of people wanted advance warning so they could pray and get their spiritual affairs in proper order. I had not actually thought of this while thinking fast about what should be done.

As it was, cast members and patrons alike told me they were pleased for the warning so they could make their own choices about what to do. As it was, those on stage and our patrons made quiet calm decisions and the show went on. This event ended without consequence for the theater. I can only hope there are no more summer reruns of this kind.

As I have learned from some very wise people, “As we go through the day we pause, when agitated or doubtful, and ask for the right thought or action. We constantly remind ourselves we are no longer running the show, humbly saying to ourselves many times each day “Thy will be done.” We are then in much less danger of excitement, fear, anger, worry, self pity, or foolish decisions.”

Sometimes we just have to fly by the instruments and faith.

Blessings,


Craig C. Johnson