Possibly 40 or more workers there may have lost their lives last night.

Fridays were "mandatory overtime. " Monday thru Thursday was 12 hour shifts, starting at 4 AM or 6 PM, paying $8 hour.

(KY allows employers to fire workers who refuse mandatory overtime)


We'll learn more later about why there was not a better tornado safety plan in place. The employees who got out of that building are OK.


Mayfield used to have a General Tire plant that paid a living wage. Those jobs went Mexico.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/11/2021 07:33PM by Lemon Drop.

Note how Mayfield is in the middle of the progressing string of warnings, beginning several hours before the mayfield hit. (Open in new window for a closer look.)

There were supervisors in that building who knew or certainly should have known that danger was imminent.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/11/2021 08:48PM by Acer.

Has that $8/hour been confirmed?

OMG I was making $8/hour 40 years ago part-time in a machine shop while still in college.

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Grateful11

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Grateful11
Has that $8/hour been confirmed?

OMG I was making $8/hour 40 years ago part-time in a machine shop while still in college.

Yes, a reporter posted a copy of a recent job posting for the factory.
[twitter.com]

And your comment goes to show how bad the past few decades have been for people who earn the lowest wages.

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Acer
Note how Mayfield is in the middle of the progressing string of warnings, beginning several hours before the mayfield hit. (Open in new window for a closer look.)

There were supervisors in that building who knew or certainly should have known that danger was imminent.

I'm wondering the same about the Amazon place in Illinois. They were having a shift change when the tornado hit, meaning people left home and family and came on to work AFTER they had received these warnings. Possibly out of fear of losing their jobs. Or maybe some thought that structure would be safe.

And frankly, if Bezos can send tourists to space, how about some better safety for workers?

The northern border of the state is defined by the Ohio River and is relatively flat. The further east and the further south you go, the hillier it gets as you get into the western foothills of the Appalachian mountains. The water table in this region is relatively high as well, since you are essentially in river bottom. The combination of easily available water from both wells and the river, and the flatness and richness of the land allowing agriculture AND the river allowing transport all combined to make this region of the state more populated than the other parts.

There is a “saying” that the storms follow the riverbed (at least here in Oklahoma) and while the saying is not strictly true, this storm system seems to bear it out.

As far as the apparent ignorance/ignoring of the weather, this is not a region of the country where massive systems spewing multiple tornadic vortices is normally assumed. Even here, some people ignore the warnings. Part of the problem is that the forecasts say that it is possible, but we all know the weathermen don’t know what’s happening (/sarc). In truth, areas that don’t normally see these things assume it to be a big wind, and you should be safe inside. Not true. Since this area of Kentucky doesn’t normally see these kinds of storms, underground shelters are not considered necessary and thus won’t be around—besides the water table is rather high and thus one can’t have a basement or root cellar. Additionally the storms hit in the night, making it difficult to know that a tornado is on the ground as you can’t see the debris field. When it hits power lines and/or transformers it will short and thus spark brightly, but in most cases this is about all you will see unless it is backlighted in some way. This is the worst scenario possible, unless one hits during rush hour.

Only time will tell as to how powerful the storms were, as such categorization depends on (amongst other things) assessment of the damage done. Was it one vortex on the ground the whole time, or multiple ones dipping down and rising up? Just because the vortex has gone back into the clouds doesn’t mean that it won’t either send the same one back down or spawn another. The storm track makes it quite apparent in hindsight that the event was massive and potentially deadly.

About ten years ago, we saw an F5 on the ground for 45 minutes, tracked continuously the entire way. This was in mid afternoon when it started forming, and near the end of the track it hit more populated areas. There were portions of its track where it stripped the sod off the ground, the only thing left of a home was the foundation, the news stations were doing nonstop weather (radio too) telling people that the only way to survive it was to either get out of its path or seek underground shelter now. Timelines were given as to when it was expected to enter an area; estimates of the width of the vortex were given (a mile wide, and sometimes two): and there were still people who went outside to see the tornado (broadcast on every local station, so why track it down?) and some went to an overpass to watch the incoming storm. Of course, the overpass was in the path of the storm. Of course, the debris cloud made it harder to see. And of course, these folks lost their lives.

Since then, we have seen tornadoes in areas that haven’t seen one in over 50 years.

Increasing vigilance and increasing warning times, as well as development of severe storm warning systems have saved lives and will continue to do so only if the systems are implemented and people pay attention. I have family in that area, and my heart hurts for the communities there.

Diana

I get that we all generally ignore such warnings, figuring it will miss us or if it does come, we'll hear it in time. I've done that a lot myself, living in Ohio for a good portion of my life.

One change to that paradigm is cell-phone weather alerts, though. They do not depend on you happening to hear the forecast or the storm. And it can be much more targeted than a vague radio report warning the entire county. Just this fall, I was at a meeting when several phones went off. We muddled about for a moment, then decided to head to the basement. While we were not directly hit, there was a small tornado touchdown with a mile or two. It's made me a believer that when that cell phone alert goes off, I pay attention.

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Acer
One change to that paradigm is cell-phone weather alerts, though. They do not depend on you happening to hear the forecast or the storm. And it can be much more targeted than a vague radio report warning the entire county...

Minimum wage workers are often not allowed to bring cell phones on the premises in factories/warehouses. Got to squeeze everything you can out of them, no distractions.

...And Amazon workers.
[www.bloomberg.com]

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Diana's,
Thank you for sharing those personal experiences, and I hope your family and friends are ok in the aftermath of this horrific natural disaster.

These big storm systems have moved east over the past decade. Kentucky is in the crosshairs now. Growing up in South Carolina, tornadoes were not a common threat. Hurricanes were our worry. Now, we have tornadoes every spring, including big damaging storms.

There has to be spending on safety preparations, or this loss of life will repeat and get worse. Schools, hospitals, work places, public spaces like airports, etc. Hoping some of this infrastructure bill money goes to that.

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Sarcany

Quote
Acer
One change to that paradigm is cell-phone weather alerts, though. They do not depend on you happening to hear the forecast or the storm. And it can be much more targeted than a vague radio report warning the entire county...

Minimum wage workers are often not allowed to bring cell phones on the premises in factories/warehouses. Got to squeeze everything you can out of them, no distractions.

...And Amazon workers.
[www.bloomberg.com]

Those lawsuits are gonna be huge. That policy kills. Literally.

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