Tornado warning (rant)

[AK907]

The other night at work we were having one heck of a storm. Power was in and out, my co-workers motorcycle was thrown across the parking lot and another co-workers car was damaged by a flying trash can from a powerful downburst. Really nasty stuff, but we're all ok. Now here is what irks me:

A little after 9:00pm a couple customers come in and talk about how a tornado just touched down not far from where I work. No sooner did they finish telling us the sirens went off. The manager proceeds to kick these poor people out of the store as well as another family who pulled in to seek shelter right after the sirens went off and locks them out of the store!

WHAT THE ??? Tornado sirens are blaring and you are kicking these people out of the store? None of my other co-workers seemed to care. I was the only one who had an issue with this besides the families being thrown out.

I was told they were locked out because of "liability". If a tornado hit us and they were injured we could be sued. Ok, then why can't they sue us for NOT offering them shelter? Makes about as much sense to me.

What the kind of world do we live in nowadays where you can sue somebody for them letting you take shelter during a storm? If I were the judge on that one I would laugh at the people and tell them to GTFO.

The tornado did not hit us, thankfully, but that is no excuse for the careless, cold hearted actions of my manager.

[dragonmoon]

thats messed up surely a situation like that common sense should say help people who need help/shelter..... a nameless phone call / email to a local newstation works well in that situation I find

[SpiffyYoshi]

Liability? A natural disaster is completely out of anybody's control, it's not like a wet floor. Just sounds like an excuse for being a d-bag.

[TomC]

I think if you let someone in and they get hurt you should be covered under the good samaritan laws. I do not know if this is the case but it sould be.

[Redneck_Crow]

Personally, I think that anyone who comes up with a policy that refuses to allow people to shelter in their store when there is a tornado threat ought to be neutered, just in case gross stupidity is genetic. When lives are in danger, shouldn't the first priority be to protect those lives and not to minimize possible liability?

[AK907]

I think if you let someone in and they get hurt you should be covered under the good samaritan laws. I do not know if this is the case but it sould be.

Just like how some people sue people after they give them CPR and crack a rib.

[Cendalla]

[Jay_Bunny]

It is sad that is has to come to that. Unfortunately though we are living in an economy where people will get money any way they can. If they take shelter in a store, and somehow become injured within the walls of that store (flying debris, falling fixtures, etc) they will sue for as much as they can. Just like people will sue if someone pulls them from a burning building or car or performs life saving CPR.

An example of what people will do. Just the other day a co-worker was telling me of how they were doing maintenance on a 60 gallon fish tank on display at the store. They put up several wet floor signs before they even began. A pregnant woman walks into the store and according to my co-worker, watched for about 20 minutes before she tried to sneakily move a wet floor sign out of view (that's right! She moved the sign herself!). She then came back and slipped on the water and started complaining. After making sure she was okay, the manager threw her out.

But that is what it has come to. If tornado signs were blaring and I took refuge in a retail store (if they let me) and I was injured due to the tornado, I'd just be glad I was alive, thanked the store for allowing me to shelter there instead of having to seek shelter in my car, where I probably would have died. Suing someone for saving your life is just pure stupidity.