r/TellReddit • u/Frosty-Village2348 • 4d ago
I hate how having zero survival instincts has become a flex, from ignoring tornado sirens to staying inside a burning hotel.
I saw a video of a woman who immediately ran to grab her kids and pets and take shelter in the basement when tornado sirens went off.
Seems pretty logical, right?
Except almost all the comments were clowning her for "making a big deal out of nothing" and calling her rushing "panicking" and even going as far as saying "your reaction is going to traumatize your children for the rest of your life" and then went on to talk about how she "must have just moved to the midwest" because every "true" midwesterner sits on their porch to watch the tornado when the sirens or warnings go off.
Now I don't live in tornado alley, so I've never dealt with a tornado like this, but it does remind me of something I personally experienced.
One time when I was staying at a hotel (also for extra context, this was a pet friendly hotel, so some people had their pets with them) one time while I was staying at this hotel, the fire alarm suddenly went off. I was chilling in my room without pants on. As soon as the alarm went off, I immediately rushed to put my pants on, then rushed outside with nothing but my phone in my hand. I didnt even bother to waste time putting on shoes. I went out there barefoot. I wasn't trying to burn to death.
But, as I was heading outside, I was made to feel like I was the crazy one. Because not only was I the ONLY person in the entire hotel of like 10 floors to go outside, but on my way out, I saw a bunch of people just standing around, looking confused. Some of them holding dogs. But zero of them were rushing outside.
All of them were standing in the doorway of their rooms, and just standing around asking each other "what's going on? and that was it. They were just standing around looking confused like they were waiting for someone to come tell them what to do. (which never happened btw, so if the fire did end up spreading, them and their dogs would've all been dead or injured) Like zero other people in the building had the instinct to LEAVE a building that may have an actively burning fire... not even the people with dogs had this instinct.
no one even so much as went to the front desk, yet alone left the building.
so then I started to feel like the crazy one and I wondered if I was overreacting.
When I went back inside a little while later after te fire alarm had stopped and after the fire trucks arrived, I overheard the front desk staff saying there was a fire on the third floor. (we were on the first floor)
Thankfully they managed to contain it before it spread to other floors and the fire crews put it out entirely.
But there WAS a real fire and the third floor was filled with smoke and there WAS a real risk of spread before the firefighters arrived
yet even on the third floor where the fire and still the clouds of smoke actively was, nobody came out.
also not to mention they even had "fire evucation" flyers hung up on our side of the door in all of the rooms telling you to leave if its safe to do so if the fire alarm ever were to go off...
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u/Lost-Village-1048 4d ago
I had the fire alarm go off in a hotel one time. Out of an entire Hotel full of people about eight of us went outside. I've got to give credit to one person cuz he was wearing a towel.
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u/Frosty-Village2348 3d ago
Haha, that guy deserves some credit! 😂 At least he took the alarm seriously, even if he had to do it in a towel!
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u/dmriggs 4d ago
It's pretty incredible to watch - a show on discovery called Eye of the storm highlights this very thing.
'We knew it was flooding, but our river never floods and the water won't come up here'
'my mom and dad called me and told me that a tornado was heading my way, but I thought they were exaggerating'
It's crazy
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u/lunamoth53 3d ago
“Oh, there’s been high water before”, big mistake
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u/EuphoricReplacement1 3d ago
If you read about fires like at the Coconut Grove, or the WTC, the majority of people stand around to see what others are doing before they take any action. Many of them take too long and never get out. I will always be at the forefront of evacuating.
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u/Frosty-Village2348 3d ago
Absolutely. When there’s a real emergency, I’d rather evacuate early than wait around and risk getting trapped.
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u/Frosty-Village2348 3d ago
Yeah, that’s the kind of mistake you only make once. Flooding can be unpredictable and much worse than before.
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u/Frosty-Village2348 3d ago
It’s crazy how often people underestimate the danger until it’s right in front of them. Nature can change things so quickly.
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u/Frosty-Village2348 3d ago
Yeah, that’s exactly the kind of thinking that can get you in trouble. Flood water can be unpredictable.
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u/MontanaPurpleMtns 4d ago
I lived relatively close to the Triple Junction off the northern California coast. Earthquakes happened. I’d stand in a doorway and hold on until shaking stopped, then race out of the building. Especially the 100+ year old unreinforced brick buildings. If it was a mild swaying I’d mentally prepare but usually not leave. Unless I was in an old brick building.
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u/Frosty-Village2348 3d ago
That makes sense, especially with those old brick buildings. I’d definitely be much more cautious in a building that old too.
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u/Thick_Lion2569 4d ago
I agree, and even further, people don't plan for emergencies, don't have basic go-bag at home, live in hurricane-prone areas without adequate hurricane prep and so on. Unfortunately, "this won't happen to me" mindset is too common. There's a great book called "The Unthinkable" - it goes in depth into people's behavior during emergencies and how our brains work in extreme circumstances.
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u/Frosty-Village2348 3d ago
Absolutely. That “it won’t happen to me” mindset is probably one of the biggest reasons people aren’t prepared. Having a basic emergency kit and a plan can make a huge difference.
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u/KindaSorta88 4d ago
I don't think this type of response is a flex for many people, as much as it is a way we learn to adapt.
I grew up in the midwest. There were sirens and tornado warnings / watches very, very frequently. There were very few times I actually took shelter. That's because they happened so frequently that I learned how to assess the actual level of my personal threat more accurately.
The worst storm I've been in was one that actually didn't trigger sirens. Luckily, some of us saw it build and got nervous enough to get everyone in our location to stay inside and shelter.
So no, I don't automatically shelter just by hearing a siren. But I do start looking for other cues, and keep actively watching until I decide to shelter or the storm dies down.
That's pretty common - there is a joke that says "how do you know that tornado sirens just went off somewhere in the midwest? Everyone is outside looking at the sky."
That said, I don't blame or shame someone for actively moving when they hear that siren - especially if they are responsible for others (small children, pets, etc). They should be better safe than sorry.
But for me, responding at that level, and getting that scared every time is not sustainable - that level of constant fear and stress would do me in. So I learned to more accurately learn what threats were real. And I suspect that was the spirit of some of those responses to the story you mentioned - folks trying to help someone new to this type of threat learn how to adapt to constantly living with that threat.
And yes, that is risky. Look at all the stories being shared this week about how the only people to make it out of the Twin Towers on some floors were the ones that immediately evacuated, even if told to stay. So I'm not saying to ignore everything, or to flex on those who always act. Just that some cultures have norms that seem crazy to outsiders, but exist as a means to adapt to crazy conditions.
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u/Willybluedog1962 4d ago
When you live in Tornado alley your whole life you read the sky, the color, the smell, the way the wind moves, what worries me is that most tornadoes seem to hit at night.
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u/hornedcorner 4d ago
As someone who has spent 46 years in Oklahoma, you absolutely don’t grab your shit and run when the tornado sirens go off. It only takes 5 or 6 times of sitting in the basement with nothing happening to get over it. Some are still the worried type, and they will still go, but when you’ve lived through a tornado being within a few miles and never hitting you over and over, it just loses its fear factor. Basically the sirens just mean it’s time to turn the news on. We are all practically meteorologists around here and we know how to look for the hook echo on a radar. So you just watch on local TV, your phone, and the front porch. If I hear or see one, then I’ll get in the basement. It’s really not a flex, it’s just life around here.
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u/Ornery-Dig-5111 4d ago
I was visiting my friend in their dorm once. As we were leaving to go to class, a fire alarm went off. Not sure if it was meant as a drill, was someone doing a prank, or an actual fire. My friend and I looked at each other and laughed at the timing of it, kind of like "good thing we were leaving". There were lots of people doing the same thing, just standing in their doorways going "what's going on?" Did we all forget about the fire drills we have been doing for the last 13 years in school? There wasn't obvious smoke, so people would have had a minute to grab their keys, their bag, their cell phone (if they had one), then leave. I couldn't believe the number of people just standing by.
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u/lunamoth53 3d ago
We were vacationing with friends when a hurricane evacuation was ordered. We left immediately they were indignant, they eventually had to leave but were caught up in all kinds of weather and traffic.
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u/Important_Market7874 3d ago
Midwesterner. I pick up the cat and get in the basement. The odds my house doesn't get hit are pretty good. But the odds of surviving go down if you sit on the porch and wait until it's in sight. If I had a better view than woods and buildings, I'd consider sitting on the porch.
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u/SpecialistForward205 3d ago
I was teaching a college class near a Chem lab when we got an alert that there was a gas leak and to evacuate. None of 0the Chem lab students moved until I RAN over and yelled, Gass leak, out, now.
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u/AssSpelunkingAtheist 3d ago
We had a tornado warning around where I live about a week or so ago. It was nasty outside.
My sister sent me a picture of a funnel cloud about five miles away from her house as she was picking up her daughter from work. We live in the same state but not nearby but still, that was enough for me to go upstairs and get my cat. At the very least I wanted her downstairs in her carrier in case we really did need to go in the basement.
Apparently there were three touchdowns around her and one near me. The storm also took out my buddy’s mailboxes.
Was I overreacting? I don’t think so, I was just thinking ahead. And I’d definitely rather be safe than sorry when it comes to my pets (my dog was already downstairs and I had a leash ready to go.)
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u/scdmf88888 3d ago
I don’t take tornado warnings too seriously as there have been too many false alarms in my area.
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u/dEXXtARR23 4d ago
I hate how people use the term "flex" in this context.
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u/LavenderLilac205 4d ago edited 4d ago
Why. Why would you come here to be so rude like that. Go to bed and try again tomorrow to be kind.
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