Tornado family sues Walmart.

[Gumbo4x4]

We always err on the side of caution. I've never seen a tornado, but have been very close on 2 occasions. My wife & I had a mobile home when we were first married. We were both home with the flu when we heard it coming - that far away train sound they always talk about. We were too sick to do anything about it (both laying in bed with buckets by us), so we just held on & felt the trailer rock back & forth until it stopped shaking. We didn't find out until the news that night that a trailer that looked just like ours was destroyed about a mile from us.

When I was a tour guide a Meramec Caverns one hit the parking lot & campground while I was inside giving a tour. They sent us out to clear the grounds & we found several cars that were flatter than a pancake from falling trees. Didn't realize at the time that there was a woman in one of them

 

[ZachnElli]

A couple of years ago 2 tornados hit here in Omaha in the middle of the night, it was like 2 am. No sirens went off, Doppler didn't pick them up and it was too dark for spotters. They have changed city policy to let them sound the alarms over a certain wind mph (like 100mph I don't remember exactly) even if a tornado is not spotted. Basically, the city officials decided if the wind could blow your roof off, it was dangerous enough to sound the sirens, especially when most people are sleeping. My point is, tornados are still VERY unpredictable even with top notch scanners!

 

[Planogirl]

I feel for the family but unless they show that the man was restrained in some way I hope that this case is thrown out of court. I don't think that it's a business' responsibility to predict the weather or to build structures able to withstand serious tornadoes. Few structures can withstand the higher category storms.

I am puzzled with the argument that the man should have left the store when the sirens started. Living in tornado alley we are always told to stay indoors wherever you are because while the building may not be perfectly safe but being outside is likely to be worse.

 

[SandrA9810]

I feel for the family but unless they show that the man was restrained in some way I hope that this case is thrown out of court. I don't think that it's a business' responsibility to predict the weather or to build structures able to withstand serious tornadoes. Few structures can withstand the higher category storms.

I am puzzled with the argument that the man should have left the store when the sirens started. Living in tornado alley we are always told to stay indoors wherever you are because while the building may not be perfectly safe but being outside is likely to be worse.

If you find some of the old blogs and articles about those that were there, they did find people in their cars killed because they didn't go into the store. It was already a nasty day outside, it wasn't the day to be taking leisure drives to the store for unnecessary items. That was this guy's first mistake.

 

[Ccann]

I was running a ball tournament last May, when a dark wall cloud appeared. I looked on the web to see what it looked like. We saw a big bout of rain coming so when it started to rain we (4th time it rained in a two day period) I decided to cancel. 5 minutes later Hail started to hit. We had about 50 people left when sireons started. I made everyone get into the bathrooms, all concrete with one vent window.

Screaming kids and everything. I calmed everyone down made the smallest children get closest to the inside wall. There was no room for me so I went out side there you saw 3 rotations. The siren went on and off for an hour. I have video of the funnel clouds dancing down and up , every time it would go down not touch yet the siren went off. Wind wasn't too strong yet. The funnel was right over One of my fields, about half of a football field away from me.

I am terrified of tornados I was the kid who moved all of her stuff animals to the basement as a kid to keep them safe. I could not control the few people who wanted to be outside to to watch. (I had to act brave and that I had my sh** together, inside I was scared and panicked)

Side note I worked for Walmart for about 90 days during a holiday season. We were instructed to have all customers to the bathrooms incase of a tornado.

Joplin is only 3 hours from me, and this was very scary. Lots of devastation. I feel sorry for the two ladies loss, I hope they find closure. But I know that this could be a long battle if they are to go to trial unless they settle out of court. It can be painful to go through the process and feel like you have lost him all over again.

 

[esk]

I think this is very sad, but unfortunately indicative of our culture.

It was a natural disaster and unfortunate that he died, but to sue the store where he took shelter? The money isn't going to bring him back.

Why are they suing for lost wages? He was close to retirement age. Pain and suffering -- yes, of course they are in pain and are suffering -- but it was a NATURAL DISASTER that nobody caused. He chose to go to the store.

I think this lawsuit in itself is tragic. This really has to stop. Nobody wants to take responsibility for themselves and their decisions. Blame everyone else. And then sue. If it was a small mom-and-pop hardware store, they wouldn't sue because there wouldn't be money there. But Wal-Mart has deep pockets and I think these two ladies are looking for a payday. I hope Wal-Mart does NOT settle and wins in court.

 

[SandrA9810]

I think this is very sad, but unfortunately indicative of our culture.

It was a natural disaster and unfortunate that he died, but to sue the store where he took shelter? The money isn't going to bring him back.

Why are they suing for lost wages? He was close to retirement age. Pain and suffering -- yes, of course they are in pain and are suffering -- but it was a NATURAL DISASTER that nobody caused. He chose to go to the store.

I think this lawsuit in itself is tragic. This really has to stop. Nobody wants to take responsibility for themselves and their decisions. Blame everyone else. And then sue. If it was a small mom-and-pop hardware store, they wouldn't sue because there wouldn't be money there. But Wal-Mart has deep pockets and I think these two ladies are looking for a payday. I hope Wal-Mart does NOT settle and wins in court.

Unfortunately, naturally occurring events, like the wind blowing, don't always win.

Just take the Monsantos case against a small farmer. He was sued by them because seeds from another farm naturally blew into his field. It was deemed his fault for having their seed mix in his crop. On top of that, he lost his organic certification and all that other stuff he worked all his life for, just because the wind blew.

Suing Walmart is a stretch, but I can't believe they actually named the store owner as responsible. As if he didn't lose enough in the storm, and probably lost friends or family of his own... now he's being BLAMED for the death of some random guy in the store? I'm fairly sure all emergency plans are sent down by corporate to begin with, so he was only following rules given to him just like the employees that were there.

BTW, if this guy was so bound and determined to leave the store, why not just walk out the emergency exit? That's what they're there for.