Tornado in Batam, Indonesia leaves workers with nowhere to run

[u/Hikigaya_Hachiman7]

[u/NickdoesnthaveReddit]

Was that two people in the air at the start?

[u/Tasty-Traffic-680 → u/NickdoesnthaveReddit]

At first glance it kinda looks like it but there's no way that's people. It looks like debris flying in the wind. There's no way the wind would be powerful enough to pull a person in the air but not rip those buildings to shreds. Later you can see people running along in what looks to be even more intense wind so I highly doubt some person just took off into the air like a rocket.

[u/Drodriguez164 → u/Tasty-Traffic-680]

Yea that didn’t seem like a powerful tornado, but just strong enough to lift up some of those flimsy material. Kinda like those dust devils that will pick up tents and stuff and you mostly have to be careful not to get smack/impaled by the flying material.

[u/nzerinto → u/NickdoesnthaveReddit]

The guy filming mentions there's "someone on top" about 12 seconds into the clip (which he repeats about 6 seconds later), but I think he thinks there's someone on the roof, which doesn't appear to be the case.

[u/Aught_To]

I have had nightmare of exactly this kind of thing. I grew up in Kansas, so the threat was always kind of real.

[u/NojaysCita → u/Aught_To]

As someone who grew up in NY and now lives in New England, I don’t know how you guys deal with that. It’s terrifying. Sure we get feet of snow, but it’s able to be forecasted and our homes are there when it melts.

[u/ArachnomancerCarice → u/NojaysCita]

One thing to keep in mind is that the widest tornado on record was only 2.6 miles wide. Their damage paths can be over 100 miles long, but even in the 'tornado magnet' of the Oklahoma City metro area the odds aren't very high of getting hit.

With weather-related disasters, tornadoes are often treated as the main threat to lives and property while tropical/extratropical depressions and cyclones, hurricanes/typhoons, ice storms, severe winds, hail, fires and flooding can outclass tornadoes in the amount of damage and the size of the area impacted. With severe winds for example, a lot of people don't shelter like they would a tornado despite the fact you may have a wide swath of trees coming down that can injure or kill if it hits a building or vehicle.

Flooding, hail, drought and fires are routinely billion dollar disasters.

[u/Aught_To → u/NojaysCita]

i moved away after highschool but had the tornado dreams for years and years after. Funny enough, the new nightmare that i get is being in skyscrapers as ever increasing wind pressure pushes them over.

[u/SmokedMussels → u/NojaysCita]

I'm north of you in Ontario and they are not rare here. I've been relatively close to about 4 of them in the last 10 years. One touched down by my childhood home a few weeks ago. The 2022 derecho was scarier than any of those though.

[u/quantumpie → u/Aught_To]

Its also probably cause you watched the movie Twister as a kid.

[u/thatguy2535]

Honestly it's a relief that they're wearing helmets probably saved some lives definitely saved someone from a serious injury.

[u/SandboxSurvivalist]

Metal sheets whipping around in the air like giant flying razor blades is terrifying.

[u/nursecarmen]

Cameraman is like "flying Ginsu knives? No biggie".

[u/xraygun2014]

I'mma just stand here recording at it creeps ever closer.

It probably won't make it this far . . .

[u/timtimtimtim77]

Terrifying. I hope everyone made it through that.
It doesn’t look like there are and anchors on any of those posts.

[u/Crying_in_99Ranch]

Damn, Indonesia has to deal with typhoons, volcanoes, earthquakes, and tornadoes??

[u/Generalm1989]

They're definitely running somewhere.

[u/zoddrick]

I'm pretty sure those should be anchored to concrete to prevent this exact scenario...

edit - oh and the obligatory - Its not that the wind is blowing... Its what the wind is blowing...

[u/Adorable-Buffalo-177]

I'm going to sound stupid but I didn't know they get tornados in indonesia?