Letter to the Editor: Devastation tours

In a true entrepreneurial spirit, new adventures abound. One type of adventure that is currently booming is the tornado tour. Numerous companies are now advertising them. With climate change, it is becoming clear that this could almost be a year round business. The midwest of the United States remains the center of this new industry but other areas are gaining.

Professional storm chasers are hired by these companies. I’m not sure what constitutes a professional storm chaser, but this is the claim. Safety, they say, is the number one concern when close ups of tornadoes are the goal. Hence, the experience of the storm chasers leading the tours is an important factor in choosing which company to use. These employees of the tornado tour companies are expert in identifying storm cells and transporting their customers close to the action.

What is really memorable about storm chasing, and I call these adventures, devastation tours, are viewing the wreckage after the event. This part of the viewing is the most fun. Why simply watch a tornado when you can follow it up with a tour of the devastation. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to find some people standing around piles of rubble that were their homes and getting their reactions to the loss of their houses. If no one is present, keepsakes and souvenirs are for the taking. Certainly no one is going to come looking to you for personal items you may have made off with thinking, quite logically, that the missing items simply got blown away.

Of course, the main event in such a tour is when you can arrive in time to find people looking for family members or pets or other such things. These are really good photo opportunities. Nothing beats the wailing of a young mother having just lost her child in the rubble. An additional benefit to such a windfall is the ability to sell the photographs of these situations to newspapers, magazines, or online news aggregators. You might even be able to cover the cost of the tour this way. So, make sure you have the ability to take photos when chasing tornadoes, and take a lot of them. You might not be able to find a man looking through the wreckage for his wife, but you might be able to add a storyline to the photos you do get that will sell.

So, once again, the true American entrepreneurial spirit is at work here. This is what has made America great folks - the entrepreneurial spirit. And as the climate begins to change more and more, it is clear that we Americans will be in the forefront of the ability to profit from it. We will continue to lead and we should be proud.

Richard E. H. Phelps II

Mingo