Natives are neat ... tell that to the people of Plattsmouth, NE or St. Louis, Mo
Yeah they are neat but until a tornado hits down smack dab in the middle downtown GF it's good enough for me.
Ps yeah I know its myth but you never know what is real and not lol
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Myth or Misconception #2 .... Some towns are “protected!”
Various Native American tribes perceived tornadoes in different ways. Some saw them as a cleansing agent, sweeping away the ragged and negative things of life. Others saw them as a form of revenge for dishonoring the Great Spirit. Today, only the myths about the protection of towns by rivers and hills linger in modern American culture.
The Osage Indians, native to Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri passed on tornado legends to the early settlers. One such legend has it that tornadoes will not strike between two rivers, near the point where the rivers join. In the past 150 years, this idea may have given a false sense of security to some people who thereby failed to take shelter. They may not have lived to help debunk the myth. One by one, the myths that particular towns are protected have fallen by the wayside.
Emporia, Kansas, for instance, had sat “protected” between the Cottonwood and Neosho Rivers, in native Osage territory, for over a century. Emporia was free of damaging tornadoes until June 8, 1974 when a tornado killed six people and destroyed $20,000,000 worth of property on the northwest side of town. Another tornado did $6,000,000 in damage along the west side of Emporia on June 7, 1990. Part of the path of the 1974 tornado was also the site of a deadly twister on September 29, 1881, but the area was farmland then.
The idea that one's town is “protected” is a combination of wishful thinking, short memory, the rarity of tornadoes, and a distorted sense of “here” and “there.” Proof of protection has been offered by a very simple statement of fact. The town has never been hit by a tornado, but 10 tornadoes have touched down “outside” of town in the past 30 years. The occurrence information may be fact, but the conclusion that the town must be “protected” does not logically follow.
That logic disregards some very basic ideas. It ignores the likely possibility that rivers, ridges, and valleys have little or no effect on mature tornadoes. Tornadoes have passed seemingly unaffected over mountain ridges 3,000 feet high. Dozens have crossed the Mississippi River, from Minnesota to Louisiana. Both sides of the river, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, near St. Louis, have seen devastating tornadoes.
Topography may have some influence, but protection is not one of them. Weak tornadoes may damage hilltops. But well-formed, mature tornadoes may actually stretch themselves into valleys and intensify. During this vortex stretching, the funnel diameter may shrink in diameter and the tornado will spin even more rapidly. This is hardly what one would call protection for buildings in a valley.
The belief that tornadoes don't hit “here,” but always seem to hit “north of town” or “south of the river” ignores some very simple mathematics. “Here” may be a small town with an area of one square mile. Just “outside of town” or “there” or “to the north” may be anywhere within visual sighting from the water tower, perhaps 10 miles in all directions. Therefore, if the town has an area of one square mile, then “outside of town” has an area of over 300 square miles. A tornado touchdown is 300 times more likely “outside” of town than in-town. The “protection” of the town does not come from hills, or a mound, or the joining of two rivers. Tornado protection comes from the same source as our protection from falling comets or other heavenly visitors .... that afforded by the laws of probability .... the very low probability of rare events such as tornadoes.
