Comments on: Clutter saved their home

By: Jacque

Jacque — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:43:34 +0000

Love the absolute lack of “investigative” in that piece of puff journalism. As almost every other commentor has said - that was just the same kind of weird luck that you hear about EVERY time a tornado hits. Tornadoes skip, and bounce over things, trailers full of stuff or no.

By: Babs

Babs — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 04:13:30 +0000

I remember an article in “The Journal of Irreproducible Results” about the effect on the North American continent (it’s sinking) of all the National Geographics stashed in garages. So, yeah, I think if he had enough of the magazines he might have defied the tornadic fury.

By: lionel

lionel — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:42:09 +0000

Frome fate to providence to idiotic rationalization….
I LOVE these comments!

By: tipper lorry

tipper lorry — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:11:17 +0000

My father-in-law’s office was destroyed by a tornado. The walls were ripped apart, and a telephone pole was driven through the remaining walls of the building horizontally, so that it looked like a ceiling beam. But his desk was untouched, with stacks of papers still on it as he had left them. My point? Tornadoes do truly strange things. So do people, including rationalizing keeping too much stuff based on the unpredictable behavior of weather phenomena.

By: Cliff

Cliff — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 03:41:41 +0000

What I’m trying to figure out is if this was a good or bad thing that happened. Sure, they guys still has his trailer, but he still has all his clutter.

By: loriborealis

loriborealis — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 18:20:07 +0000

Okay - the more I watch that video, the more confused I get! I now realize that the trailer was separate from the house, they live in the house and the trailer only has clutter in it. What I STILL don’t understand is HOW did the trailer “save” the house by acting as a “fortress”?? At the beginning of the video the reporter said that they thought the trailer kept debris (ie, tree branches, etc) from flying into their home, which I guess is possible, but I still don’t know how they think it kept their house from being “leveled” as the father claimed.

I don’t believe the weight of the clutter in the trailer would save it. And I don’t believe that a cluttered down trailer could save a house from a tornado. Like others have said, I think it was just the tornado skipping.

Okay - I watched it AGAIN and am now wondering if they think the weight of the clutter in the trailer kept the trailer from becoming a MISSILE and leveling the house.

I’m more confused. I give up. lol

I still don’t think a cluttered trailer could not be picked up by a tornado, though.

By: Dr. Nicole Sundene

Dr. Nicole Sundene — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 17:42:03 +0000

Still clutter is just not healthy for the body! Have you posted about Chinese Medicine philosophies on clutter and Feng Shui? If not let me know and I would be happy to write about it for you.

Healthy Home= Healthy Body

Hurricane or no hurricane!

By: Sheryl

Sheryl — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 16:57:47 +0000

I think it’s just a way to rationalize keeping all that crap.

“SEE! If I hadn’t kept all that stuff, the tornado would’ve gotten the trailer!”

Please. The dearth of logic sometimes is truly incredible…

By: John of Indiana

John of Indiana — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 16:17:12 +0000

Well, it’s better than hearing about somebody’s imaginary friend in the sky who spared them and their single-wide but let a mom and her 2 kids get wrapped around a utility pole in their car 1/2 a mile away…

“I got so much crap in my trailer the teraynda couldn’t move it!”

Uh, yeah, right. Excuse me, I have to go shovel out a closet now in the Never-Ending Job….

By: Sue

Sue — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 15:57:21 +0000

In Indiana, we refer to trailer parks as “Tornado Buffets”; this miss was pure luck. If the trailer had taken a direct hit, the tornado would have decluttered his life fairly effectively.

By: karen

karen — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 13:22:30 +0000

I think I’m on board with this being dumb luck. But even if the clutter did happen to save them, it would be an example of, “even a stopped clock is right twice a day.”

By: Crystal

Crystal — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 19:14:17 +0000

You know - I know someone who had a car accident and his car was pushed into a light pole. THe light pole ended up right in the middle of the driver’s seat area. The only reason my friend survived is because he didn’t have a seat belt on and he was thrown into the back seat before landing by the pole. It was a fluck thing, and he’s a lucky guy: but I still wear my seat belt.

Did the clutter save the house? Who knows? But if it did, it’s just a chance happening and I am still gonna keep uncluttering my house, lol

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 17:32:59 +0000

*off to start my stockpile*

By: Christine

Christine — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 17:30:57 +0000

Pure dumb luck. That’s all it was. Like Jaye said, tornadoes jump houses all the time. There are plenty of stories out there about the one house left standing in an entire neighborhood.

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 17:13:48 +0000

Correlation is not causation. It was happenstance.

By: David

David — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 16:11:59 +0000

Nope, it wasn’t the clutter. It was {insert name of your diety/dieties of choice here}, luck, fate, chance, happenstance, etc.

I wonder how much the dorms at Union University weighed?

http://www.uu.edu/tornado/

By: meg

meg — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 14:45:27 +0000

still not worth it!

By: Ian

Ian — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 14:30:53 +0000

The clutter may have helped save his home, but it’s akin to the few people that are saved in car crashes by not wearing seat belts and being thrown clear of the wreckage. It happens but it’s so rare that it doesn’t even matter.

By: Sonia

Sonia — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 14:09:29 +0000

I live in Tornado Alley and have lived thru many tornado seasons. Tornadoes can rip thru anything, including clutter, I have a hard time believing that when I’ve seen entire buildings picked up and put down elsewhere, including barns. It is much more likely that the tornado simply changed course more so than it “couldn’t” destroy his residence because it was so “heavy” from the clutter.

By: Jaye

Jaye — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 14:07:01 +0000

Ridiculous.
Clutter will not prevent a tornado from ripping the roof off of a home.
This family’s home simply was jumped by the tornado, and tornadoes do that all the time.