I am amazed the ......... lard ar*es could move so quickly - who knew!!!

I agree that laughing at people running from a tornado is in poor form. With that being said, it's simple human nature to gain pleasure from seeing someone who exercises unwanted dominion over you being controlled themselves by something they don't want.

I suppose that now, in addition to "Bravo" drills, we'll see tornado drills at the checkpoint.

Interesting that the TSA could find and release that video so quickly....

In all sincerity, a tornado drill would actually be useful in tornado-prone areas. It's pretty obvious that these screeners had no plan. I'm not asking them to protect US in these kinds of severe weather events. But, they should have a basic idea how to protect themselves.

As strange as it sounds, taking cover between the halves of the Cancer Machine (depending upon the direction the openings were facing) is not a bad place in which to ride one of these pavement pullers out.

So instead of "BRAVO" we'll now have "TANGO"... @:-)

Yes, TSA should have a practiced plan to protect their employees from tornados. The checkpoints are exposed to other threats as well. It'd be better to take a all-hazard approach before the next unexpected event occurs.

The TSA is a key component of the DHS culture that does not consider anything other than a terrorist attack. As a result, FEMA has to fight for its fiscal life every year or try to contrive a counteterrorism mission. I have personally been a part of some of the most absurd multi-agency DHS exercises you can imagine.

In fact, natural disasters cause farmore destruction than terrorist attacks, even the much-fabled stolen nuke detonation. The EF-4 (or even if it was an EF-2 by the time it got to the airport) did orders of magnitude more damage to the airport than anything short of a strike package of MiG-29s from the Al Qaeda Air Force.

Actually if TSA had a tornado plan for those airports under such threat they might have been able to give some directions to people waiting in line who might not know where the more secure areas of that airport are located.

Is it a TSA job? No, but they are public servants on the front line of the war on terror and I can speak from experience a tornado is terrifying.

But they only concern themselves with that sort of thing when it comes to running the dragnet - er "discovering" something that might be illegal as part of their "administrative search".

Putting the schedenfreude of TSA runnning away in terror...as much as the TSA seem to be the antithesis of fit, it's not like the typical flyer is any better condition.

I am of the impression the TSA and others at the airport were not aware of the Tornado Warning, let alone the fact there was a "long track" Tornado heading towards the airport.

With the use of radar, it is possible to pinpoint exactly where a tornado, or potential tornado, is and its track.

From what I understand, a Delta pilot over at gate A4 along with the gate agent working the flight did not know there was a warning. He apparently knew there were storms in the area that may have tornadic signatures, but the pilot was unaware of the warning and impending tornado tracking towards the airport.

Additionally, other carriers had boarded flights with jet-bridge connected at the airport.

This tells me there was no situational awareness of the warning, let alone the impending long track tornado which was pinpointed on radar as heading towards the airport. If pilots and airline / airport staff were aware, why were these pax on the aircraft with jet-bridge attached?

Over in concourse E (WN) from the video I've seen, it wasn't until the actual tornado touchdown that everyone was instructed to evacuate and go downstairs. Thankfully concourse E did not take a direct hit as there is a lot of glass there and that concourse was packed.

Hopefully some lessons will be learned from what happened and applied with common sense.

It may be human nature to get that pleasure, but verbalizing that pleasure is a choice.

You're right. And hence I will exercise my choice.

After seeing the behavior of the TSA clowns at STL, I'm just sorry it wasn't an EF-5, instead of an EF-4.

Just like threatening "DY...D" and barking is a choice?