I live in Springfield and the storm approached FAST. The owner of the Ripleys Believe it or Not has been qouted as saying the boats should not have been on the water. His company owns the Ride the Ducks company. I know all of the news channels are showing these videos in the area and the video is shocking,but that storm came quick. I was out in a pick up truck on I 44 and the clouds just went black and wind picked up. Semis were pulling over. We pulled over and took shelter at a truck stop Bois D'Arc area. Springfield had electricity out and one person reported that winds were 70mph.
The warnings were long before they would've gone put on the water:
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WSB-Atlanta Meteorologist Brian Monahan tweeted,
This severe weather threat was forecast for DAYS.
Monahan is correct. I went back to find the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center convective outlooks issued on July 18th, a day or so before the event. The discussion said,
The potential for one or more early day thunderstorm clusters complicates the forecast scenario on Thursday. Any such cluster may present a localized severe wind risk early in the day, especially across portions of MO … Further south down the Mississippi Valley, a more conditional severe risk will be present. Any early day thunderstorm cluster that survives may rejuvenate across portions of southern MO/northern AR during the afternoon. Later-day storms that initiate further north may also merge into a cluster that moves southeastward into this region. Some damaging wind risk would be possible in either scenario, with some marginal hail risk associated with any more discrete convection that may develop."
The boat operators knew of the forecast days before.
Frankly, I think they typically ignore such warnings if it looks clear enough because a storm this bad is probably rare and they don't want to lose money by being cautious when most of the time nothing bad happens.
But there should be a moral obligation to never place profit over lives.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.fo...ecause-storm-did-not-come-out-of-nowhere/amp/
I’m curious.......aren’t life jackets mandatory on a vessel like this. If not, why not ?
I think life jackets might have actually made it harder for some people to survive in that situation.
It looks like the sides were enclosed with some sort of clear, vinyl panels due to the weather. As the boat capsized, which took seconds and which they were unlikely to truly believe would happen, the passengers would all have been flipped sideways into each other, as belongings and anything else not secured whipped around them, and as water immediately rushed in, submerging them in seconds.
They would've been mostly trapped in an upside down vessel with the weight of thousands of pounds of water pressing the boat and them downward, with bodies pinned to the ceiling of the vessel, as it sank.
Those wearing a life jackets would be more securely pinned to the upside down ceiling by the competing forces of the floatation device's bouancy and the pressure of the water.
Life jackets would also make it harder to swim sideways away from the ceiling and put a window, if they could undo a panel.
Imagine trying to do all of this in fast, heavy, rushing water, as people and objects fling around, while trying to gather your kids.
I imagine many of those who escaped weren't wearing life jackets and were somehow able to get out a window panel as the boat was capsizing, before it went under.
This is horrific.
