Shakespeare 2016
Member
You all need to stop.
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Radar confirmed large and extremely dangerous tornado near Mobile Airport.
Some of you probably already know, but NWS Des Moines has confirmed that they will not be utilizing the DAT or releasing any more photos from this outbreak, on account of the survivors and victim's privacy. While I do understand that to some extent, it is still the job of NWS employees to document these events in detail, and they have also neglected to release anything but the bare minimum info on the damage, pic or no pics. That doesn't sit will with me, as all this does is leave us with a poorly-documented event that will become difficult to research decades down the road, as there just isn't enough info. My local WFO does this too, and it annoys me to no end.
For example, had a bunch of people not saved numerous damage photos from Smithville, and did further research that uncovered incredible damage not even included in the official survey summary, most would have no idea how remarkable Smithville was, just because NWS Memphis didn't care enough to keep the damage pictures up after the website overhaul, or even provide a detailed description of what happened.
Bottom line, if you aren't going to release photos, at least write a detailed summary. Doing neither is not acceptable in my opinion.
From what I’ve gathered, the survey was thorough and many photos were taken, but they just aren’t publicly releasing them. I don’t personally think this was an EF5 candidate though.Never heard "victim privacy" as an excuse to not perform and publish a thorough survey. Losing your property and perhaps loved ones to a tornado is understandably traumatic, but in all my years of following severe weather, I've never known of a survivor that thought having their damage accurately surveyed would add to their pain. On the contrary, most seem to be curious about exactly what happened to their property.
Edit: I don't know the circumstances specific to this case, but this smacks of another cudgel that could be used down the road to explain away a lack of effort to take a good hard look at potential EF5 indicators.