Posted on 12/13/2021 4:45:30 PM PST by Scarlett156
Night-shift workers were in the middle of the holiday rush, cranking out candles at Mayfield Consumer Products, when a tornado closed in on the factory and the word went out to seek shelter, but at least four claim supervisors that they would be fired if they left their shifts early.
At least eight people at the factory were killed, among dozens of fatalities across several Kentucky counties.
Word of the approaching storm circled for hours with up to 15 of those on shift asking managers if they could leave in order to shelter at their own homes, only to be told 'no'.
.... (photo) Autumn Kirks, right who was on shift tossed aside wax and fragrance buckets to make an improvised safe place. She glanced away from her boyfriend, Lannis Ward, left, and when she looked back, he was gone.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
We’re pissed because Yankees often act superior to us even as they stream in here after destroying up north or Kali where they come from
To their eternal credit..here in middle Tennessee where northern refugees economic or political are likely now half the population .....midwesterners do not do that at all or at least rarely nor do conservative Kali refugees who apologize for being Kali
But abolitionist stock northeasterners are often arrogant...ethnic Italians excluded
It’s always been this way ....I remember my first trip to Manhattan in 1967 I was ten....I was on the manned by operator elevator at the Hilton in the west 50s on 6th ave....tween Rock Center and CPS ...folks on board asked me ..I was alone ...where I was from....when I opened my mouth and said where the atmosphere took on the pall as though I’d just projectile vomited
Believe me ...we get it.
In the event of a F3 or higher tornado there are very few places to go unless you have a storm cellar. Even the commercial built units do not guarantee safety. Notice on this manufacture is “ “near absolute protection against EF5 tornado winds.” Protect against winds and debris, but not a direct hit. https://survive-a-storm.com/product/quonset-community-tornado-shelters-12ft/
As for you and your wife, they say the bathroom is the best place to be if it is an interior room. Otherwise an interior closet. https://www.wafb.com/story/7833867/safe-shelter-in-a-tornado/
I worked for AT&T in Maitland fl. IRS occupied the 2nd floor. A bomb squad showed up. We saw it from our window and the remaining 3 floors shuffled outside. Our director came back from lunch and demanded we all go back to work. I told her... when the bomb squad leaves I will. Unbelievable
It was a PDS. The whole nation knew a wave was coming for hours even a day ahead of time.
I was up all night checking and my wife prepped the shelter for our brood.
If it had occured during working hours, there’s no doubt my workplace would have sent us home.
Not the same outfit I worked for. But yeah, head games. They would piss me off so bad, my woman would come home to find me drunk and throwing things.
I don't know what the protocol is in Kentucky but if tornado sirens are going off in Missouri it's because a tornado has been spotted on the ground. In that case I would think that dumping 100 people into the parking lot trying to get home would be very dangerous. So if the factory management refused to let them leave but instead directed them to safe shelters in the factory that's one thing. But if they refused to let them go and insisted that they continue their work then that's quite another. And indications are it's the second scenario that was what was happening.
LOL, in our ranch, there is no such thing as an “interior room”.
My poor wife. I would deal with it as it comes, but...she is terrified of weather. Too much television for her...
So are/were you in the sign business? I built electric signs in Ctrl FL for 25 years.
The courageous few who ignored their masters were rewarded. A good lesson.
I have worked in places with similar rules.
It is you may be more at risk leaving than staying, and if you don’t follow correct clocking out procedures someone will be looking for you when you are not there.
However, those rules ONLY came into effect if we were in tornado shelter rules.
Growing up in Nebraska, we would run out to see how close they were before taking shelter. Dad would say “We have 30 minutes and 40 pigs to vaccinate. Get to work!”
Now the one time a tornado was heading to us, we beat feet to a safe location.
When you see them every summer, you stop being afraid of them.
The company has, of course, denied these claims. And without video evidence, I’m pretty sure they’re not true.
*Boss, tornado’s coming, can I go home?* *You’re fired if you do!*
In today’s age, that definitely turns into other employees asking, or same guy asking again, this time with multiple people recording it. Unless this video comes out, no way this actually happened. My guess is people were told it’s not safe to leave, so they don’t want people to leave. And that, of course, gets inflated. (And was wrong, but that’s irrelevant.)
Well we are /
I'm from MA originally but lived in FL longer than anywhere and am in MO now. I like the nice small government here. Zero building codes. Haven't heard a siren or foreign accent in years.
My understanding is that when the tornado hit - with all the people in the factory and apparently at their work stations, NOT sheltering - the first thing that happened to let everyone know they were about to have a really interesting day was that the electricity went down, leaving all in the dark. Then - as the one lady put it - it was like a bomb went off and the place collapsed “like a house of cards.” So then they were in the dark (some getting doused with hot candle wax) and pinned under debris.
When the sirens started going off, why didn’t the supervisors say, “Let’s all get to the basement!” or something like that? Lawyers will find liability there.
The sirens going off, that was when people started wanting to go home. (Again, I’m not saying that the people who left anyway were heroes or that they don’t deserve to be fired under company rules, or whatever.)
The place didn’t have any sort of tornado safety procedure, or so it seems. People were trapped beneath brick and cinderblock walls and sheet-metal siding and roofing that had collapsed.
They were having a Xmas rush on candles, which is why they were all there working like little elves in the first place, and - to all appearances - the reason they were supposed to ignore the impending bad weather and keep cranking out those candles.
***
Jesus: The irony here is that the “feast of candles” is about -
Me: Don’t joke when nice, hard-working people are dead!
JC: *confused expression* They’re not dead! *glances around* They’re actually having a barbecue right now! *puts a hand up* *catches thrown frisbee*
Only temporarily. I needed work between gigs. I signed up to drive the truck, but they found I had a good eye for it, so I got pulled into the production. Hated it. Fascinating to watch, but not my thing.
Oh I loved it. Working in Ctrl FL where theme parks are I did some real high end stuff and was told by others I was the best. I was also self employed for a while doing wholesale to the trade so I did everything from ordering materials to drawing neon patterns, the metal fab, wiring, painting, assembly. I’ve probably built 10,000+ channel letters. Plenty of custom cabinets.
I doubt I’d care to rest if someone dear to me died because some douchebag manager valued production metrics over people’s lives. Seriously, if it is the case that people were threatened with retaliation if they reacted to legitimate tornado warnings then management needs to be prosecuted and imprisoned for at least voluntary manslaughter.
Were it up to me I’d execute them for the crime of mass murder.
“If the building was on fire, you leave. That’s common sense.”
In Sacramento, California there’s a state agency that’s in a tall building just north of downtown and in case of fire their emergency evacuation plan says the management will leave the building to coordinate with first responders while the staff waits at their desks until they’re told they can leave. They even station people at the stair wells to make sure no one leaves without permission.
No joke.
“Illinois is not considered tornado alley.You might want to change your handle because Rush would never agree with your ignorant comment.”
Given that the community has tornado sirens in place then it would be a given that the only ignorance here is on your part.
More info. here:
It sounds as if what happened was that there was an initial warning at 6 pm for an earlier storm (than the big one): Everyone sheltered*, but that storm passed or lifted or dissipated, the sirens stopped, and everyone went back to work around 6:30 pm. Then the sirens went off again at 9 pm, everyone sheltered* again, and the big tornado hit shortly thereafter.**
My guess is that it was at or after 6:30 pm that employees started asking to leave, when there was no imminent threat, but, local TV had been talking for well over a day about a likely outbreak of severe weather and likely tornados. Some employees may well have heard by phone from friends that really nasty weather was coming in from further to the southwest.
*In any event, the factory did not have satisfactory shelter — I can’t see policy not letting people leave. Possibly this was just a supervisor on a power trip - all too common.
**Multiple accounts SEEM to indicate a rather short warning from the sirens. That baffles me — I was watching local tv and the local tv mets had this thing pegged as to size, storm history, persistence, and likely track: At least 20 minutes B4 it hit Mayfield I was asking my wife to phone or text friends there that a large tornado on the ground was headed for them... I don’t recall when NWS posted a warning that included any part of Graves County, but my understanding is a warning that clips any part of a KY county sets off the sirens throughout. Graves is a big county (by east of the Mississippi standards): If areas in SW Graves county got adequate warning from NWS, even with a fast moving storm like this one, those sirens in Mayfield (in the center of the county) should have gone off with plenty of time to for people to get out to better shelter.
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