What if a tornado hit the Texas Motor Speedway on race day?

DallasBlog.com | Scott Bennett:

“A frightening scenario would be a strike on the Fort Worth's Texas Motor Speedway in middle of its April Samsung/Radio Shack 500 weekend race. ... There would be a quarter million people there, tens of thousands of parked cars all around the track and almost nowhere to hide. ... Maybe Eddie Gossage and the folks at the TMS should be giving the weather some thought.”

Ed Cognoski responds:

What if a tornado hit TMS on race day? How about Texas Stadium or the Ballpark in Arlington? What if an earthquake hits Pasadena during the Rose Bowl? What if a terrorist sets off a dirty bomb at the Super Bowl? What if a hurricane overwhelms the levees in New Orleans?

Good God, folks, these threats aren't new. Are we prepared? Look to New Orleans for your answer. Why aren't we prepared? Because it costs money. We're cutting taxes, remember? The theory goes that individuals know better how to spend their hard-earned money than the government does. And unfunded mandates on private business (e.g., for disaster preparation) would amount to a hidden tax. Well, everybody, go buy your own disaster preparations, then, and quit acting shocked, shocked!, that our nation is unprepared for disaster.

My frustration is showing. New Orleans was a disaster waiting to happen for decades. It was not much of a secret. Yet, when disaster did strike, President Bush said, "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees." Now, people are supposedly just discovering that TMS needs to have disaster preparedness. Hell, yes, TMS needs that. So do all the other venues I listed. So does every city and business and school and home. But it takes collective action. It takes money. And the tide is going the wrong way on that. So, we sit and wait for the next disaster. And when it happens, we will be shocked, shocked!, to discover we weren't prepared again.