# Dying in a tornado **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 25, 2011, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-in-a-tornado/583156 "2011-05-25T14:32:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-in-a-tornado/583156/61 "2011-05-27T03:15:50Z")
Front page CNN right now: > **[Hope gives way to heartbreak for some in tornado-ravaged Joplin](http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/05/26/missouri.tornado/index.html?iref=NS1)** > > A Missouri mother said Thursday that her 16-year-old son was killed by this week's powerful tornado, one of scores who have been confirmed dead even as authorities try to track down many others who are considered missing. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-in-a-tornado/583156/62 "2011-05-27T05:24:07Z")
> [@Bearflag70](#): > > Do tornadoes backtrack? more than one can drop from the same cell. So, kinda. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-in-a-tornado/583156/63 "2011-05-27T05:39:41Z")
I know all the current advice is to avoid bridges but I rode out a fairly aggressive thunderstorm under a coal rail car and then a bridge. This was a serious hail flinging straight line wind storm. I wouldn’t park under a bridge but I found protection on the windward side steel “I” beam way up in the corner. Granted winds were in the 50 to 80 mph range but the bridge did a nice job. [This](http://www.nesec.org/images/haz_underpass.jpg)picture shows a ton of mud thrown under the bridge but it doesn’t show the reverse side of the “I” beam. Hard for me to say it was protection in this instance. ---
**Author:** ![mac\_bolan00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b3f665/32.png) [@mac\_bolan00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mac_bolan00)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-in-a-tornado/583156/64 "2011-05-27T07:54:51Z")
i’ve a feeling a tornado in the open prairie will be a little more pleasant that one in a town or even a block of houses. one survivor (reader’s digest.) went up in the funnel. he woke up on the ground wrapped in barbed wire and punctured all over with glass and wood splinters. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-in-a-tornado/583156/65 "2011-05-27T12:58:11Z")
The power of these things is amazing. Here’s a video of a tornado derailing a moving train (and trains cars are much _heavier_ than automobiles): [- YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WADnriWzJes) ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-in-a-tornado/583156/66 "2011-05-27T14:31:29Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > The power of these things is amazing. Here’s a video of a tornado derailing a moving train (and trains cars are much _heavier_ than automobiles): [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WADnriWzJes](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WADnriWzJes) [And here’s one derailing careers!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJlPTU_kmk8&feature=fvsr) ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-in-a-tornado/583156/67 "2011-05-28T04:57:11Z")
> [@Washoe](#): > > Front page CNN right now: > > [http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/05/26/missouri.tornado/index.html?iref=NS1](http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/05/26/missouri.tornado/index.html?iref=NS1) Mark Bridges, the county coroner quoted in the article, was interviewed on CNN today. He talked about how bodies aren’t all in morgues – they’re in body bags in trucks. He said that was making it difficult for people searching for their loved ones, and that they were asking family members for descriptive information, tattoos and the like. The guy looked like he was barely holding it together. I felt so sorry for him. They interviewed another emergency worker (fire or police, not sure) who had the same wild look in his eyes. They both looked shell-shocked. How do people recover from something like this? ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-in-a-tornado/583156/68 "2011-05-28T20:31:13Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > The power of these things is amazing. Here’s a video of a tornado derailing a moving train (and trains cars are much _heavier_ than automobiles): [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WADnriWzJes](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WADnriWzJes) If you notice the train stopped on a bridge. I think it was the wall of the bridge that kept the first car close to the cab. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-in-a-tornado/583156/69 "2011-05-28T22:21:11Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > If you notice the train stopped on a bridge. I think it was the wall of the bridge that kept the first car close to the cab. What freaked me out was after the derailment (of what looks like a few cars in the middle), the engine stops and you can see something murky rapidly approaching the engine…and its _the rest of the train_, careening towards the stopped engine with a tanker car in front! I was like :eek: ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-in-a-tornado/583156/70 "2011-05-28T22:27:19Z")
I have a related question WRT trains and tornadoes: what is the SOP when a train is approaching a tornado? Just keep going like the one in the video and hope for the best? Try to stop? Its not like the train can take evasive action. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-in-a-tornado/583156/71 "2011-05-28T23:30:06Z")
> [@Kilmore](#): > > That’s why they say the old adage of opening the windows to equalize pressure in the house to keep it from getting imploded by the tornado is false. Not only is the pressure differential not so strong as to implode the house, but an open window isn’t going to be as effective as the Cadillac getting thrown through the living room and into the kitchen. Most windows aren’t big enough to let a cadillac through and anything else would smash through the glass, so isn’t that advice more about not getting hit by flying glass? Boarding up the windows or having strong shutters on them would be better than either, but failing that? ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-in-a-tornado/583156/72 "2011-05-31T08:02:38Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > I have a related question WRT trains and tornadoes: what is the SOP when a train is approaching a tornado? Just keep going like the one in the video and hope for the best? Try to stop? Its not like the train can take evasive action. stopping would seem the logical solution. Better to have part of a train pushed over rather than a 50 mph pile up. In the video the train must have been in the process of stopping when all this happened. If not the tanker that hit the engine would probably have ruptured. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-in-a-tornado/583156.md?page=3)