Tornado chasers

As a child, everyone must have read “The Wizard of Oz.” The background is a vast meadow in Kansas, the U.S. Dorothy who lives with her uncle and aunt in a peaceful farmhouse is swept by a cyclone to arrive at the wonderful land of Oz. She has mysterious adventures with Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Lion. After the author, L. Frank Baum, learned that a "cyclone" is a storm emerging in the Indian Sea and the Arabian Ocean, he corrected the storm that carried away Dorothy to a "tornado."

Tornado emerges mostly in the vast plain in the central and eastern part of the U.S. A funnel-like tornado has a monstrous power that swirls up objects on the ground with a powerful wind speed of hundreds of kilometers per hour. A legend says that a tornado blew away an 83-ton train carrying 117 people in Minnesota in 1931. Korea has a “rising dragon,” a tornado-like phenomenon, not on land but over the sea. It was named so because dark blue sea water soars like a dragon rising to the heaven. It was last found near Ulleung Island in 2005. Fortunately, no casualties caused by a "rising dragon” have been reported.

Twister, a movie released in 1996, is one of the most popular disaster movies attracting 55 million viewers in the U.S. alone. Dr. Jo Harding, who lost his father at five, works as a storm chaser to find out the cause of killer tornados. It is still touching to see him struggling with the great nature to plant “Dorothy,” a special observation device, in the eye of a Tornado.

Three veteran storm chasers including a father and a son were killed last week by a tornado that ripped through the U.S. city of Oklahoma, the stage of the movie “Twister.” Though they were in a specially-designed vehicle and wore safety belts, one of the victims was blown some 800 meters away. They were proud of their job, saying, “Being close to a tornado is one of those incredible, fleeting moments that sometimes you have to take a couple of seconds to take in.” Their bereaved families released a statement that read, “We take comfort in knowing they died together doing what they loved.” Both the victims and their families are admirable. We are living in a safer place thanks to their sacrifices.

Editorial Writer Ha Tae-won (triplets@donga.com)