A Tornado is Rare - until it happens on your Street

 Natural disasters happen all the time, all over the world. Luckily Czech Republic is somewhat safe and not many disasters here were ever caused by aggressive weather. We feel good knowing that in our part of the world an aggressive tornado was rare. The last one was approximately 900 years ago and historical records described it as hellish event, that frightened the people of those times. Climate change is a reality and if it caused the tornado to form over two small villages in Hodonin, on 24th June 2021 is not something I can judge or explain. 

The event that took everyone by surprise was caught on camera by people who more or less realised the dangers of a real tornado. Despite the devastating material costs and manpower needed to recover from the ruins that now is all over the news, the worse is that there were people dying, 6 victims are already counted among which a 32 year old pregnant lady and a 2 years old baby. The injured were at around 85 people. These numbers are taken from the local media available to me via the seznam search engine and I did not verify their accuracy more than what was available there.

My heart goes to all the victims and families and their worries for the present and future could not be imagined. We live at short distance from these villages and what worries me the most was why no one measured and announced people via Radio or TV that a tornado was coming. As parents of 3 young kids, we want to know before. I tried to understand and the more I think about this, the more I worry about the future. I am all for living in the moment and do not panic, but this was real. It can happen again. 

What is the lesson we learnt? Will it help in the future or will we continue to ignore important weather data or lack the interest to make basic measurements?

I imagine any country has some kind on national weather station or meteorological Institute. I have so many questions for them. We live in 2021. I know, through he nature of my work in IT field that there exists a lot of data modeling and predictions that can be made regarding weather. In theory, a tornado is the simplest and fastest to measure via current existing technology. Data and signs from weather stations should have been gathered, analysed and predictions could have been made at least 48 hours before the event. An emergency plan (before, not after the catastrophe) should have been put in place in as soon as 4 hours by the ones in charge and start evacuating the regions or village. Why no one did that? Where are the meteo people and the storm hunters? I can't believe in this age we are so behind and unable to warn people before a natural disaster happen. Is not Middle Ages. Technology exists and someone has to use it. I would prefer to know before and try to avoid it, if possible get out of the way of a tornado.

As an average person I could notice the abnormalities in the sky structure, the so called cells forming, the unusually strong winds and abnormal electrical discharged. A tornado hunter for sure knew these are all warning signs a tornado will form. Why no one said anything, is beyond me. In the 2 nights preceding the tornado I could not sleep from the worry and bad feeling that something is not right with the weather. It all bothered me deeply and wished to stay awake, checking windows, kids and husband all night, as the electrical discharges were more and more profound. I usually sleep like a log during thunderstorms and rain in general. But that was something else going on. A tornado was preparing and I had no idea why I was so worried because of the weather. Those nights and days before I kept digging the local weather news, searched on sezanam available information to find what is going on outside, as it not feel normal to me. All they announced was strong winds and thunderstorms with disruption of electricity, damage to properties. What about incoming tornado with damage to properties and human lives? The weather predictions were far from the reality and it upsets me that in this day and age a technology and measurement as simple as for a tornado was (maybe) just not made.

These are my concerns as a simple human living in here for almost 10 years. I do not blame anyone. I just wish we make things work better, we need smarter technologies and faster ways to react to disasters so we avoid victims. The material disasters cannot be avoided but in this case, in my opinion, the people could have been saved. The human lives that were lost deserved the effort to quickly organise a rescue and evacuation plan. We must evolve in that direction and make things work for us, for the people. I know my words will probably not change anything. But please, if you have the slightest suspicion that an aggressive natural event might form, please warn us. We need to know...before it happens.

As for our local English news providers, both for Brno and Prague I thank them for the news, keeping us up to date and especially for a nice infographic they put just day before the tornado: how to behave during a strong storm. It had really useful tips and showed how to avoid an incoming strong storm. I recommend reading them daily, follow the advice, they are true professionals and always bring the best content quality for us, expats.

Link to English News Outlet BrnoNewsCTV and the image they posted 22nd June: