Severe Weather Precautions in STL
 

All,

There may be severe weather in STL. Pay attention, take all precautions, and pay attention to the safety procedures where you are.

We've just experienced some very serious hail in Maryland Heights and are watching the weather. Be vigilant. Storms are headed towards downtown.

Jane

Re: Severe Weather Precautions in STL
 

Yes, stay safe, and I mean by much more than safety glasses. about 1" hail has been seen and there was a tornado warning. Does anyone local know somewhere online to get a current weather radar? I can only find one from about 5:30...

~Abby "RoboDawG" Wilson~

Re: Severe Weather Precautions in STL
 

The National Weather Service is keeping a close eye on any weather developments. There was a Tornado Warning earlier, but was canceled shortly afterwards as the storm moved out of the area. The St. Louis area is still under a Severe Thunderstorm Watch until 7pm, and Tornado Watch until 10pm tonight, unless canceled early or extended longer.

Check here for the latest bulletins for the area:
http://forecast.weather.gov/showsigw...Saint+Louis+MO

There's a live radar with severe weather overlays here. Click a point on the map to view current severe weather statements:
http://wxug.us/ng8u

Re: Severe Weather Precautions in STL
 

Thank you for visiting St. Louis and we hope you have enjoyed our ever changing weather.

Re: Severe Weather Precautions in STL
 

The huge hailstorm started to fall on the roof right as the first finals match began... I think it created a pretty cool atmosphere. Too bad all the energy was already gone from the proceedings...

Re: Severe Weather Precautions in STL
 

It took a few seconds for me to realize what was happening. And, yeah, about the energy loss - even playing Sandstorm couldn't bring it back. :D

BTW - thunder in downtown St. Louis as I type.

I really hope everyone stays safe. I know I have quite a few close friends over there, and I know everyone on 1071 was thinking about everyone's safety when we heard the news.

Be safe everyone, both tonight and in your travels back home.

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Really thundering now at 9PM makes me wonder whether they did the first night stuff at the arch.

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The weather was lethal:

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/20...ent-storm?lite

RIP.

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That was the first storm and we were all just finding out about that one when the 2nd one hit.

Where I was there was no warning and all of a sudden, baseball-sized hail. My family has 2 damaged cars and a damaged house. And they are not alone in their community. All of the neighbors came out to check on each other. It looked like it had snowed yards full of baseball snow. Bizarre.

Jane

Re: Severe Weather Precautions in STL
 

Myself and other alumni, who were fed up with what was going on on Einstein, found out about the weather and were forced to stay by event security. Also there were some discrete signs on the video banners on parts of the arena about the weather. You were not allowed on the concourse.

Re: Severe Weather Precautions in STL
 

I was at the nearby T.G.I. Fridays when it hit. First I heard the tornado sirens going off and then it started to hail. A horse and carriage was caught in it. I hope the horse and driver are OK.
I saw Quarter size hail.
My car looks like someone took a ball peen hammer to it :ahh:

Re: Severe Weather Precautions in STL
 

I was in the pits when the hail began, I thought the roof was coming down!

Yah, people where more thrilled over paper aircraft than the robot throw down XD But to be fair FIRST was, as a whole, dead tired.

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I didn't like the communication at the finale. There was a tornado less than 30 minutes away and we were all left clueless besides the, "severe weather: please stay in edward jones dome." Maybe it's just me..

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We were on the ending edge of the tornado warning, they removed people from the upper-deck from what I heard. Saying tornado warning in a stadium like that would be like the same as yelling fire, mass panic would have happened. Security was having a tough time as it was keeping people away from the windows.

Re: Severe Weather Precautions in STL
 

The pits began to flood. I felt so bad for the team close to the door, I hope all your guy's stuff was okay, 68's pits were just a foot away from the water.

Re: Severe Weather Precautions in STL
 

This happened to teams at the Pittsburgh regional when there was the shooting. Teams were just told to stay inside and no one was really told why. I imagine it was to keep panic to a minimum.

Re: Severe Weather Precautions in STL
 

I liked when the announcer mentioned basketballs hailing down on the Einstein while the dome was being hailed on.

I went from being terrified to "ahaha thats funny" and then back to being terrified.

Re: Severe Weather Precautions in STL
 

Except the actual message didn't have any punctuation. This let me choose to read the message as "Will the severe weather please remain within the Edward Jones Dome." :)

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Ironically the back of Team 3999's shirts say: "A storm is coming." When I heard about the tornado and hail, I thought my shirt had a prophecy inscribed on it. :cool:

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Up until I saw the severe weather alert on the billboards, I hadn't really noticed the roof of the dome... after the alert, I think I watched the roof more than I watched Einstein.

I understand the whole "minimize pacic" argument, but there was a tornado within viewing distance of the dome, I felt that something should have been done at that point to ensure everyone would be safe in the event the tornado hit the dome.

I tend to get freaked out by sever weather, so maybe it's just me, but I think we saw a real lack of emergency planning/reaction and had the worst come to pass that lack of planning could have been a major disaster for FIRST as a whole...

Re: Severe Weather Precautions in STL
 

We were already in the safest place available in the Dome. I was sitting in the volunteer lounge and we were asked to head to the dome due to severe weather coming and the Dome being the safest place.

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If we can't handle entering the dome in a non-emergency, how would we evacuate in a real one?

Ultimately, I would say that trying to evacuate a group of 20000 people under a major time crunch would be way less safe than leaving them in the dome, which is likely built to building codes meant for this kind of a situation.

Re: Severe Weather Precautions in STL
 

FIRST was following the weather conditions constantly and was in contact with the National Weather Bureau. The path of the storm was relayed to those in charge and were told that the dome was clear of the main cells path. This led to the decision to stay put.

Re: Severe Weather Precautions in STL
 

Actually, there were many similarities between the events. In Pittsburgh the lockdown was announced without detail, but it was relatively easy to find the cause because the initial shooting events could be accessed on smart phones, and anyone outside of the pit / field area could see the police activity due to multi-floor windows in lobby (which overlooked Western Psych, site of shooting). The shooting was literally next door to the Peterson Events Center and all roads were block by police / emergency / and SWAT vehicles.

Like St Louis, those inside were told to stay away from windows (although at Perterson Events center windows are bullet proof).

In Pittsburgh the lockdown was MUCH longer (5-6 hours, but emergency was prior to the start of region - on Thursday when teams were just practicing) and the nature of the threat was far from clear (search was in progress for second shooter, who did not exist).

Both events were handled well and there was no clear sign of panic. The injuries and death in St Louis were headlined on cable news sources like CNN and the warnings were carried on weather channels, so details on the emergency were available almost in real time, which was also true in Pittsburgh.

Re: Severe Weather Precautions in STL
 

Our pit was literally underwater, but someone came by and moved our stuff away from the developing puddle as soon as it happened. To whomever did that, thanks! Also, thanks to 68 (who picked us for the alliance), most of our pit was on the dome floor.

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And, I suppose, if the weather doesn't suit us, we should just wait around for a few hours :p
Um, yeah, that was me. Sorry. :eek:

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Was the water in the pits from leaks in the roof, or from water blowing in from open doors?

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Did anyone else see all of the volunteers sprinting off of the dome floor? That was my freak-out moment.

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I got a text message of, "Fyi, horrible storms outside, heard tornado sirens..." Checked the weather and saw the cell. I was like "Oh holy smokes, we are near a tornado" Then got a text message that told my friend and I to get up to the stands (we were on the floor watching Einstein) and it said a capital "NOW" so..........freak out time!

Re: Severe Weather Precautions in STL
 

I personally don't have any problems with how the situation was handled. Announcing to everyone that "a tornado is coming, please stay put" would have caused ridiculous amounts of panic. Where would you have wanted to evacuate to? We were already in a safe place in the case of a tornado, and there were volunteers keeping people from leaving the seating area to the hall outside where there was lots of glass. They were kept up to date on all the weather conditions, and even kept the finals going longer (which was surprising to me, they always seem to go on so long anyway :p ) so that people wouldn't want to leave out into the storm.

Re: Severe Weather Precautions in STL
 

We discovered today that the hail in St Louis had destroyed the skylight/vent on the top of the team's trailer. The rain during the past couple of days was not good for the trailer's contents. Our pit carpet is now hanging over one end of the driver station wall of our practice field to dry out. Our mascot costume and its carrying bag are sitting out to dry as well. I think the electrical crew took the wires off some of the robot batteries to make sure there wasn't any lasting damage.

The top of the trailer is covered in dents, clearly visible from the inside.

Re: Severe Weather Precautions in STL
 

See this post (he conveys what I am attempting to say much better):
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...8&postcount=60

I'm doubtful that dome was really the safest place, and that keeping everyone in the dark about the situation was the best approach. HAD there been an emergency situation, it would have been absolute chaos because there was no plan conveyed to the audience. The tornado sighting I heard of (from an adult who saw it) occurred 10 minutes or more before any announcement was made of severe weather (other than the one electronic billboard that the majority of the audience could not see).

Everyone in the stands knew something was going on outdoors, but nothing was said; imagine if a handful of people had decided to take off running (for no real reason), more than likely there would have been a stampede because people were on edge and prepared for the worst.

The way this was dealt with is strikingly similar to the disasters you hear being investigated afterwards in the media, where poor-choices/inaction in an emergency situation cost many people their lives.

Maybe FIRST did have a better handle on the situation than I was able to perceive, but for an organization that preaches safety so strongly, I was very disappointed by the way it appeared to be handled.

Re: Severe Weather Precautions in STL
 

Did everyone make it home safely? Someone told me that there was damage to vehicles in the volunteer parking lot.

Jane

Re: Severe Weather Precautions in STL
 

When I first heard the Championships were going to St. Louis I was concerned about falling victim to violent crime not getting whacked by Mother Nature!

Re: Severe Weather Precautions in STL
 

P.S. An aside - I was sitting in my brother's kitchen with all hail breaking loose, using my niece's laptop to create this thread. My family urged me to include a warning about the tornado but I refused, saying that I didn't want to add to or cause any type of mass worry or hysteria. At that time, I wasn't sure where the tornado was or what type of situation you were in but felt pretty sure that things were very serious.

Jane

Re: Severe Weather Precautions in STL
 

It was quite a year for me in FIRST for lock downs.

#1 Smoky Mountain regional. We were locked down because of a tornado warning, real tornadoes in the area. We never stopped playing because that part of the convention center was mostly underground and actually a storm shelter and the safest place to be. If fact people from other parts of the convention center were evacuated to our area.

#2 Pittsburgh Shootings, already described here. It was easy to find out what what happening via smart phones even though there was never an announcement. I do believe there was a mentors meeting about the situation. The field crew decided to keep running practice matches to give the teams something to do.

#3 St Louis, I was actually sitting in the stands next to a meteorologist. We were watching our smart phones and he assured me there was no danger of tornadoes in the radar we were seeing but he was so excited by the big pink blob and the hail potential that he had to run out and look.

Re: Severe Weather Precautions in STL
 

Yeah, there was a mentor meeting after the incident was over to explain what went down and how to exit the arena for the evening because at the time the street leading towards the incident was unavailable (it was open by the time our team left, though). It actually wasn't on any of the news sites even for like a half hour after we were instructed to stay inside, I found out by searching "pittsburgh" on Twitter.

Haha, I bet "I'm a meteorologist" is a good enough excuse for the security to let you through.