Tornadoes are proof that we do not use history to learn from our mistakes.

For centuries, tornadoes have been a destructive force that has wreaked havoc across continents as the Northern and Southern climates meet. No country knows the destructive nature of tornadoes so intimately like the United States. The wide expanse of central U.S. is a meeting point for the cold winds of Canada and the tropical weather of Mexico. This has created known points of interaction with the infamous Tornado Alley, which spreads across the Eastern U.S. Tornadoes tend to spawn during the warmer seasons between March to September, causing dangerous events such as the Palm Sunday Outbreak on April 11, 1965. However, they are also known to conjure during the colder months, suddenly striking from November to February when many assume the cold weather will protect them. This has been witnessed with the infamous February 2008 Super Tuesday outbreak.

The unpredictable nature of tornadoes can cause anxiety, but those who have grown up within these tornado hotspots are mostly desensitized to the dangers. During surveys meant to study shelter-seeking behaviour, both Paulikas and Schmidlin et al found that some individuals are not likely to seek shelter until they know the danger is upon them, oftentimes too late to escape. This is even when there are various warnings of the oncoming tornado, such as television broadcasts and tornado sirens. What is surprising about this dismissal can be found in the history of tornado warnings, wherein Coleman et al explains that the U.S. government banned warnings prior to 1938, putting millions of lives in danger. Therefore, this intentional ignorance and refusal to take preventative action nowadays would be gobsmacking to nineteenth-century tornado victims, who would only be aware of the danger as it approached.

In a way, the history of tornado warnings and preventative action shows an overarching issue in the U.S., wherein the government is unwilling to care for its people until something cataclysmic happens. This can especially be seen with the lack of development in building structures that can withstand tornadoes and tornado shelters. The destruction tornadoes cause has been felt throughout America’s history, so why is it that the government is not learning from past mistakes? By viewing these newspaper clippings of tornado aftermaths, I want you to imagine how these individuals would feel knowing the U.S. government cares more about saving money momentarily than protecting their citizens.