Custom Design Palette Store Allows Small Businesses to Build Their Brand for Nearly Nothing and in Stages – Very Nifty

Tags

building your small business brand, cricketdiane, custom design palette store, small business, small business tools, zazzle

About the time I had figured out how to work with these stores on Zazzle, they changed the format. Unbelievable.

However, the Custom Design Palette Store looks pretty nifty and it seems maybe people could use the solid color only items to create small business brand items for marketing. The bright colors that I love needed some additional colors so I added a series of new colors with a more sophisticated urban modern palette.

Since people, especially small business owners would be accustomed to going to a print shop rather than doing it this way, I thought it might be interesting to follow through what would be involved in making matching products with a logo.

This is one of my logos from awhile back that I’m going to use as an example –

CricketDiane Cricket House Studios Logo

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With this computer file resized and made as a jpeg, gif or png, I can go to the product with french grey solid color, upload this image and then place it on the product at Zazzle. Because the background of this logo is white, the little gear wheel function lets me make the logo background white show through as transparent and then I used the Arrange button with its “resize image to fill” command to make the logo fill in the surface.

This is the plain product I chose first –

The color only French Grey / Army Green and Black Messenger Bag / Handbag from the Custom Design Palette store I’m creating on Zazzle

And then – with the Cricket House Studios Logo on it – (in this case, the white has been made transparent, but it could be interesting with the white background showing, too.)

French Grey – Army Green and Black Messenger Bag / Laptop Satchel with the Cricket House Studios Logo to make matching brand tools for my small business

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Of course, that messenger bag is $180 – but everywhere it is seen, my business would be promoted and visible, so it is cheaper than some ads with a lot more exposure to the public. And, then I want to make a set of matching brand items to go with it –

French Grey – Army Green Mini iPad Cover from the Custom Design Palette CricketDiane Store on Zazzle with Color Only Products to use for brand marketing and fashion matching

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After clicking on the Customize It button at the bottom of the product’s photo, I can start to put my logo on the color only french grey / army green case.

Since I’ve already uploaded the logo, I can simply place it from the images button and selecting it –

French Grey – Army Green iPad Mini Case with Cricket House Studios Logo added to match other items for my small business

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Now all the iPads owned by my business can have this case on them and be a walking advertisement to promote my business everywhere they go and every time they are used. Very nifty.

And what else could I make to match these – although I do want to make an idea of the total cost, even if my business would need to buy them in stages as it grows –

French Grey – Army Green Notepad with Cricket House Studios Logo

If I wanted to place these into sales bags or use them for note-taking, they could have the logo across the entire surface, or later I could go back and make a small change for the logo to be across one corner, top or bottom instead.

The price of the things so far would be under $300, without having to do another thing – so that isn’t too bad for what has taken a couple hours to create and then it could be shipped out to me the same week. I like it. What else would work with these products to help promote my  business and its logo?

French Grey – Army Green Color Only Commuter Cup with Cricket House Logos applied to it

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I like the way this commuter cup happened when I first added the logo and with it in the middle and the cup’s stainless steel peeking through – it has a nice look, but to make one that is an exact representation of the logo on the matching items, I use the customize it button to make a slightly different version –

In this case, I clicked the customize it button and then made the logo move to one side, used the gear show whites as transparent function and then copied the logo in the same size to apply on the back. The edit button has the copy and paste option, but then the logo is actually sitting on top of the first one and moves with a drag and drop of the mouse into the new position on the back by clicking on the bottom pictures of the cup to show the back, or by clicking on the little square to the left of the product (second on the list downwards) to show an editing board to use for moving the second logo into place.) – It yielded this –

French Grey – Army Green Commuter Cup with Cricket House Studios Logo, second version

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French Grey – Army Green Mac Laptop Case with Cricket House Studios Logo

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For the Mac / Laptop case above, the back has a larger version of the logo on it. To do that, there is a little added button on the editor just above where the file / image titles show up – by clicking on the arrow there, it allows the flap, the front or the back to be available for editing. There are several products where that is the case including the kindle case and the decals for iphones and other cellphones, ipads and kindles. Those aren’t very expensive but they aren’t protective – regardless, it would be one way to display the business inexpensively where a lot of people would see it often.

French Grey – Army Green Samsung 3 Case with Cricket House Studios Logo

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Of course, there could be flyers, business cards, rack cards, postcards and letterheads made with this at the same time, but probably the most exposure would come from the messenger bag, ipad case and maybe, the commuter mug out of all the choices. People would see them on the subway as they are in use, anywhere the business activities are occurring and everywhere that the items would be naturally seen without accosting anyone to tell them about it. That would be good.

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The new palette of colors are interesting and nicely modern – but most of all, the custom design palette store with its all color and nothing but color items will allow me or anyone else to try the logo on a variety of colors, have only one or a few made at a time and best of all, allow the brand marketing items to be bought in stages. There is no art setup fee or fiddling around with color separations and the time it takes for the print shop to get the job done. I like that. So far, the things I’ve purchased from Zazzle have looked exactly as they did on the computer and the registration of the colors have been perfect. It seems like this would be a good inexpensive way for small businesses to extend their brand and its promotional value across a number of matching items for their business.

If I were to buy all of the things above for the marketing and promotion of my business, it would cost less than one advertisement placed one time in one place or one publication and reach more people. Or, it would support that ad with both being done simultaneously to extend the reach of both. That seems pretty good.

French Grey Army Green Beach Bag Tote with Cricket House Studios Logo

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That one might look better with the french grey / army green showing through, but it is nice this way too. It makes a great beach tote bag or shopping bag that could extend where people see my business. That would be great.

The total price, just out of curiosity – for all of those items above – would be –

Beach Bag – $22.95 each (unless I buy a lot of them at once which is a good idea)

Samsung Case – $47.95 each

MacBook Case – $73.95 each

Commuter Cup – $24.95 each

Notepad – $10.95 each

Messenger Bag Laptop Computer Bag – $180.00 each

iPad Mini Case – $42.95 each

Large Dry Erase Board – $43.95 each

Total – $447.65 for one of each (only one commuter mug, not both), plus shipping

That means, for less than $500 and the investment would yield over a long period of time, several years of promotion for that. Hmmmm. Interesting.

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French Grey Army Green Dry Erase Board with the Cricket House Studios Logo

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French Grey – Army Green Re-Usable Water Bottle with Cricket House Studios Logo

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Just had to add one more – The water bottle 24 oz. above with the logo on it is $29.95. Very nifty.

– cricketdiane

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About my custom palette and color only stores at zazzle – written copy for them that I created today –

Tags

branding, building a business, business brand, color only products for advertising, cricketdiane, custom design, design, guerrilla marketing, Marketing, small business

Today, it occurred to me that in the last few days in person with neighbors, friends and their children – I was actually explaining why this store and the color only portion of my CricketDiane / Cricket House Studios store were created. So, I decided to write it down and add it as copy –

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Stickers to Match – Royal Blue where your logo, artwork, brand, marketing, business name and guerrilla marketing can be added on top.
Royal Blue Stickers – Business Branding Tools from CricketDiane and Custom Design Palette Stores

The Custom Design Palette Store at Zazzle that I’m currently building –

http://www.zazzle.com/customdesignpalette*

The Custom Design Palette Store is where you will find customizable designer elements created by CricketDiane to design your own unique, novel products. With color-only, sparkly, glitter, stripes, polka dots and other designs, it is easy to add what you want on top for a personalized, custom design with personality and sparkle.

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Royal Blue Bumper Sticker to Match Small Business and Associations / Organizations Brand and Marketing Efforts –

With these color only customizable products, any business from the smallest home based business to the largest needing test branding concepts, can make an entire matching set of branding tools for marketing, for use throughout the business and for point of sale. Every cellphone, iphone, ipad and laptop owned by the business can have the same color case that matches business cards and flyers and even, the keychains to company vehicles.

When customers see such a broad presentation of the brand in use throughout the business in its everyday activities, not only does it make the business more compelling, it also increases the number of opportunities for potential customers to identify the business, see the logo, notice the brand, ask about it, perceive it to be an available resource to them and remember that business later when a purchase is to be made.

Shopping Bag Tote to Match – where a brand for a small business or organization can be made comprehensive and sweeping without costing a fortune and all of it match – fully customizable (this one with Royal Blue on a Cream Background).

These products could certainly be made another way at a local printer or manufacturer with separate orders of hundreds for each thing, although that becomes very expensive for the small businesses who need eye-catching colorful branding throughout their business and marketing efforts most of all.

For large and medium-sized businesses wanting to explore several potential brand choices for new or old lines of products and services with different presentations or brand designs, using these customizable products with entirely matching color only surfaces allow that to be done inexpensively and quickly unlike traditional ways of doing it.

Options can be explored and then decisions made about larger orders of comprehensive advertising, branding and marketing campaigns for overall brands, small business branding, product and service line branding, regionally targeted brand campaigns and similar efforts. It is a great way to do it.

Customizable Color Only Design Casemate Cellphone Case for Business Brand, Logo, Name Display matching other brand marketing products and tools

When I created these custom design palettes originally, it was placed on my main website, CricketDiane Cricket House Studios as a group of color only and nothing but color products for people to use for placing their own designs on colorful matching products.

Rack Cards to Match in Color Only Customizable Design – these in Dark Burgundy / Blood Red

Then I realized how important that would be for small and medium sized businesses to have available to them even more than brides wanting everything to match or friends and families wanting to have something to share with their own designs on them that match.

Laptop / Mac Case in Burgundy Wine Dark Blood Red – as a matching set with other color only elements, any small business or organization could make a full range of promotional and guerrilla marketing tools to promote their business. That way, every time the business has one of their office owned laptops out in the community – people would see the matching color and logo associating it with the business and even more opportunities that potential customers would know about it.

I like the idea that businesses can use these to create special product lines of things to offer these families, wedding parties and community organizations using these color only matching products but even more that their opportunities to display their brand throughout their business at an affordable price. That it can do both of those is remarkable.

I didn’t think about that when I was first making them, but it has always annoyed me to find such a tremendous expense involved in creating a brand for a small or home-based business, and for any mid-sized business in the community to try out a new logo or brand for simply a group of products worth exploring. It is ridiculous. This solves those problems significantly and in ways that are quick, efficient and cost-effective. I like it.

– CricketDiane 2013
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This way, there could be flyers, invitations, business cards, rack cards, postcards, laptop and cellphone cases, iphone cases, keychains, posters, tshirts and coasters that all match in color with any logo or artwork a business wants to try added on top. Very nifty and everything for their business or product line would match.

http://www.zazzle.com/wine_burgundy_dark_blood_red_color_only_case-222005702764529488

On the CricketDiane Cricket House Studios Store –

Nothing But Color Designer Products

http://www.zazzle.com/cricketdiane/gifts?cg=196960838491456085

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There is a store with Adaptive Living Tools which include many more color only and nothing but color items with variations of solid color found here –
Adaptive Living Tools –
http://www.zazzle.com/adaptivelivingtools*

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http://www.zazzle.com/wine_burgundy_dark_blood_red_color_only_case-179665784274259668?rf=238073773174474814

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Business Card – (and there are business flyers, invitations, postcards, and laptop sleeves that match as well as keychains and mugs, commuter mugs, tshirts and ipad folio cases.)

http://www.zazzle.com/wine_burgundy_dark_blood_red_color_only_business_card-240430242090861699?rf=238073773174474814

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By the way –

To add your logo or artwork to these products, click on the orange “customize it” button at the bottom of the products’ photo on its listing page and then upload your own artwork, brand, business logo, association logo, slogan or saying and then –

Using a logo with a white background around its outside when it is uploaded to use on these products, click on the two little double gears to the right side of the editor on the end of the line with the magnifying glasses and picture icon. The gears will open a small window where you can check the box for making the white background into transparent. That will float the logo on the surface with the custom matching colors of the product showing behind it as if they were simply made for each other. Very nifty. (and easy.)

Although there are discounts for volume purchases on Zazzle – it is also possible to order one or three or five of something which is very handy. And because these designs are available 24/7 – 365 days of the year, some can be ordered now and then come back to add to them as the business grows – and the color backgrounds I’ve created for you will be there to match for it as you go.

It looks like this is a good way for small businesses and startups to create a brand and display it on a lot of things that the public would see as everyday business activities are being done in the community. Very easy and economically too.

So, that is why I created them. My own designs show up here and there among them to show some ideas of what can be done and the main store with my designs can be found by google searching for cricketdiane. Recently I’ve started joining with others – mostly non-designers to collaborate on designs and those are found on cricketdiane at zazzle. They have been lots of fun creating things I would have never even considered from the designs and artworks I have made.

– cricketdiane

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Buildings and Houses Aren’t Being Built to Withstand Real Life Conditions Anymore

Tags

building materials, building methods, cricketdiane, design, earthquake resistant buildings, flooding, housing, hurricanes, structural engineering, tornado proof building, tornadoes

On the coverage about tornadoes and building practices recently, there was an engineer at one of the universities who said, it isn’t that we can’t build to be hurricane and tornado proof – it is the cost of doing it. And, I’ve been thinking about that.

At one time in America, it was important to build buildings and houses to be lasting safe harbors for human lives to unfold there – and for generations beyond the one in which it was built. But, in my lifetime, those buildings and housing practices as well as the foundation principles behind them – changed to be a quick result, cost-cutting, corner cutting, lick it and stick it principle of building with limited life terms expected for those structures.

Unfortunately, doing it this way cutting corners to cut building costs initially isn’t practical in the long run because several generations will live in a house, even if those people are not the original owners of it. Long into its lifetime, that housing structure must provide safety and support to those families residing in it long after it was built. The same is true for buildings and commercial structures, for schools, for hospitals and government buildings, (even local ones.)

Building and houses aren’t being built to withstand real life conditions anymore and haven’t been being built that way for a long time now in America. The generations of people living in these structures now or going to work and to school in these buildings within their community are the recipients of places that are not safe, do not withstand storms and high winds, are structurally deficient, costly to upkeep or remediate, and impossible to survive during many commonly occurring events today from tornadoes to hurricanes to floods to wildfires to earthquakes to surviving the normal aging conditions of those structures.

Across the nation, we have invested in my lifetime in building things that won’t last and aren’t even intended to last. The bigger cost of this practice aside from the tremendous loss of life that it causes, is that now those structures have to be retrofitted, remediated or knocked down and rebuilt. It is a total waste and an unnecessary danger. People believe they are safe in their homes, that their children are safe in their schools, that their loved ones are safe in hospital structures, and that they are safe in the buildings where they work – but in a variety of ways, these beliefs have been shown to be ill-conceived.

When a storm surge comes, those inside many structures are endangered although they rest inside as if it cannot hurt them and make decisions to stay based on the idea that their home, business building or nearby structures will stay intact and are safe – when in fact, they are not safe nor even built to be safe in such an event.

When high winds from tornadoes or hurricanes, from blizzards, nor’easters and heavy thunderstorms come, people hide in their homes as if that will afford protection to them and their families. But when these structures were built within the last fifty years, very few of them were built with hurricane straps, glue and screw methods, reinforcement of any kind, external wall reinforcement or in many cases, any basement, storm shelter or safe room against extreme weather events.

Often in my lifetime, town and city councils removed requirements from building codes that would have required basements or storm shelters as well as removing restrictions on building areas that would have prevented development from being built in flood plains, or where marshes take up the storm surge along coastal flood zones. In one area of Metro Atlanta, a twenty foot wall of water overtook several developments with hundreds of homes and many, many businesses because the known flood plain near a river had been developed rather than set aside. So, not only were all of those lives and families put at risk and endangered to an extreme degree, but every single house had to be bought back to allow people to go live somewhere else.

http://www.millennium-ark.net/NEWS/09_Earth_Changes/090925.GA.floods.epic.html

http://projects.ajc.com.coxnewsweb.com/gallery/view/metro/atlanta/atlanta-flood-aerial-0922/5.html

It was a complete loss of their belongings, their money invested in their homes and community as well as destroying the business and community structures put into the same area. It was nothing but a massive loss with injuries and loss of lives unnecessarily as well. The area was known as a flood plain well ahead of time before any development was made there. Absolutely none of the homeowners or decision-makers for businesses that relocated there were told of the fact that flooding was likely, sooner or later – and why flooding would be likely.

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This is a video from recent tornadoes near St. Louis last week –

http://landing.newsinc.com/shared/video.html?freewheel=91130&sitesection=stltoday&VID=24856757

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/communities-offer-thanks-start-recovery-process-from-tornadoes/article_87d2589e-3324-543a-be77-4da436b41944.html

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From a structural engineering team that examined damage from storm surges in Staten Island, NYC, NJ, CT from Hurricane Sandy last October (2012).

Breeze on down the page and there are photos with explanations from a structural point of view explaining the impacts –

“Much of the observed damage in this region was to homes—even new ones—not built to FEMA guidelines.”

http://www.air-worldwide.com/Publications/AIR-Currents/2012/Insights-into-Damage-and-Vulnerability-from-AIR%E2%80%99s-Sandy-Survey-Teams/

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Contamination

Another impact of Sandy was widespread pollution caused by floodwaters carrying a variety of toxic chemicals, petroleum, and fluids from cars and boats. In addition, floodwaters in Manhattan carried contaminants from inundated subways and tunnels, roads and parking lots, and floodwaters in industrial areas, such as Kearny and Secaucus, New Jersey, carried contaminants washed from shoreline industrial sites as well as commercial and residential buildings. These hazardous floodwaters, combined with sewage overflows, led to contamination in several neighborhoods along the coast.

http://www.air-worldwide.com/Publications/AIR-Currents/2012/Insights-into-Damage-and-Vulnerability-from-AIR%E2%80%99s-Sandy-Survey-Teams/

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Above notes that almost all flooding dangers in the US are compounded by commercial and industrial chemical pollution as well as sewage pollution being added to the waters of the storm surge, rising waters or flood. When codes that define how these are to be stored, contained, protected, and public safety protected from them are not enforced or are changed to reflect lower standards, these elements contribute significant dangers to an otherwise difficult flooding situation.

Most of these dangers cannot be remediated easily after the fact and it makes a great deal more sense for the safety of people’s lives and future health to have all of these pollutants better contained in relation to any possible event that could spill them into flood waters and then into neighborhoods and business complexes where people will later work and shop, as well as to keep them from inundating health care facilities, hospitals and nursing homes, schools, parks and other public spaces. However, in America today in almost any location, those legal demands on businesses and industries for proper containment of the chemicals they use and store have been reduced rather than bolstered as they would have been (which could have made them progressively safer rather than the other way around.)

Pictures of Moore, Oklahoma from the tornado last week –

This photo from CNN in particular – obviously the way that buildings have been built with these large roof support beams – in this case, an elementary school –

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/130520215427-10-oklahoma-city-tornado-0520-horizontal-gallery.jpg

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/20/us/oklahoma-tornado-developments

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This building may as well have not existed at all for any protection from a storm. In fact, the building materials became as dangerous, if not more so – than the storm winds from the tornado since everything in it became shrapnel and life ending projectiles. It offered no protection from the storm for anyone who may have worked there or been customers there when the tornado hit.

http://cdn2.newsok.biz/photo/uid/c5a3be4a50145b037f9c9cf7758b9330/?galleryId=

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Buildings and Homes are intended to be a safe harbor for people’s lives – not a living nightmare of injury and death

Tags

building collapse, building materials, building methods, cricketdiane, disaster recovery, hurricanes, tornadoes

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I am all for designing new things, inventing and innovating, but where there are things available to solve problems which are simply not being utilized – why create another something for it? From the storm shelters and safe rooms which are available to people in Oklahoma and across tornado prone areas that aren’t being added to homes and schools to reinforcement strategies, materials and methods for buildings in need of them not being used, decisions are being made that, far in advance of dangerous situations, are contributing to the loss of life and injuries during those events.

In one thing I read several years ago, it said that 85% of buildings in New York City are made of unreinforced masonry – that the beautiful old brick buildings throughout the city are not reinforced in any way. During the recent Moore, Oklahoma tornado, it was obvious that the school was not a reinforced structure either, nor was the hospital there which had the entire second floor ripped from it.

There were pictures from the end of last week’s tornadoes including one that attacked near St. Louis, Missouri that indicated a high school’s damaged walls and in those photos, it is obvious there were two brick walls as if a facade had been added over the existing brick building – neither of which were reinforced in any way. The yield of those decisions to not reinforce that structure even when a second facade was being added meant a pile of bricks and bricks as moving projectiles, dangers falling not only from above but in a spray outwards from the building, and had their been lives in that area of damage – potential loss of life and injuries as a result.

Up to 10 trapped in Philadelphia building collapse

PHILADELPHIA, June 5 (UPI) — A number of people were trapped Wednesday after a building collapsed in downtown Philadelphia, officials said.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/06/05/Up-to-10-trapped-in-Philadelphia-building-collapse/UPI-86161370448361/?spt=hs&or=tn

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Common Sense and Weather Safety – Tornadoes, Extreme Weather Events, Heat, Flooding, Any of It

Tags

cricketdiane, disaster recovery, extreme weather, flooding, hurricane preparedness, tornado resistant buildings, tornadoes

Watching the weather over this last week with its tornadoes and sudden severe weather events that killed people, sucked them from their cars and destroyed homes and structures made it clear that the weakest link in the path to safety for everyone is in the lack of common sense, knowledge, understanding and social context of individuals making decisions.

People in Oklahoma literally clogged interstate freeways in their cars during the time tornadoes were coming down upon them. Early reports from the Moore, Oklahoma tornado earlier in the week had indicated that many people held the belief that tornadoes would not affect large populated areas because they thought there was a “bubble” or heat / air current bubble of some kind over cities that made tornadoes go around them or be dissolved before hitting cities and suburbs. To find that idea believed by many in an area so prone to tornadoes is horrifying. That many people believed a couple days ago that they could outrun tornadoes dropping into and tracking across their city by getting on the interstates in their cars – is even more horrifying.

The National Weather Service and media outlets from The Weather Channel and CNN to every local news station made it clear that these storms would produce tornadoes specifically in the areas where they did form and tear up everything in their paths. It was not unknown information, but between the day of the Moore EF5 tornado and the next set a couple days later, people interviewed in the area under new threat of tornado acted very cavalier about it saying a couple notable things – one, that they had lived in Oklahoma and know about these storms and what to do – and two, that they were going to go on as if nothing weather related was in the way of that because they had to continue living their lives without being afraid of it all the time. However, there was one other prevalent idea, as well that came through in people’s attitudes, comments and interviews – that they did not have a safe room or storm shelter in their house although they knew the only safe place in these tornadoes which are common to their region – is to be below ground in one.

That said, there were a number of deaths and many, many injuries caused by people being in their cars when those tornadoes hit this week. There were flooded streets that people tried to cross anyway which caused those in the fast moving water in their cars to be drowned and rescuers that drowned trying to get to them. There were injuries made worse and possibly even fatalities as a result when clogged interstates where people were hurt could not be accessed by emergency personnel because of the massive standing traffic there.

A woman on the Weather Channel today being interviewed about the tornado that hit her home said that their storm shelter put into the foundation when the house was rebuilt had cost very little – around $2500 and yet, since the 1999 tornado that decimated Moore, Oklahoma – apparently very few homes were rebuilt with those storm shelters or safe rooms. Along with that, with over 1.6 million homes in Oklahoma for instance and tremendous numbers of other structures for business, industry, government, schools, churches, hospitals, nursing homes, libraries, hotels, malls, etc. – there are fewer than 12,000 total storm shelters and safe rooms throughout the entire state that FEMA records having helped to install or build.

Individual homeowners from the point in 1999 when it was known the kind of vast and massive damage that could occur from tornadoes until 2013 – fourteen years later, have made choices to not invest in that protection of a storm shelter or safe room and despite all knowledge to the contrary – have believed they would be safe sitting in a fiberglass bathtub in their bathroom or in some small interior closet during a tornado – or in their car. All of that fails the common sense test which any look at the devastation of homes from these tornadoes offer to anyone. The hospital in Moore, this week had the entire second floor ripped off of it – how could it have been built not to properly withstand these storms? How could any school in the states commonly affected by tornadoes, not have a safe room available to the 600 or more students and faculty who must be there for significant portions of their day, every day even during times that these storms can develop tornadoes and drop them on their schools?

To be honest – I’ve watched it become fashionable in my lifetime for people to ignore the dangers of weather, whether it is a blizzard, a flood situation, flooded streets, hurricanes, storm surges, swollen flooded creeks, lightning, sudden extremely heavy rain events, extreme heat events, sandstorms, wildfire and exceptionally dry conditions, landslide possibilities and although it isn’t extreme weather – earthquake dangers. I watched New Yorkers walk to the store during the heaviest winds and rains of it because they just had no respect for what those wind gusts could drive into them or across them without warning. I’ve now watched helicopter pictures on the tele of massive numbers of people on several interstate freeways in a traffic jam in Oklahoma City while tornadoes descended upon them tossing their cars into a twisted heap of metal, injury and even death.

There have been horrifically countless times across our entire country where people have driven into flooded streets to end up swept away with its currents into even more flooded areas when they should never have been there in the first place and there have been plenty of warnings to “Turn Around – Don’t Drown.”  I watched videos and news accounts during massive sandstorms in Arizona as people drove into them intentionally trying to get a better look at it to put on YouTube and out of curiosity with clearly visible in their videos – many others driving around doing the same thing – and then reports of cars overturned, traffic pile-ups and other unnecessary losses of life, limbs and property as a result. They should’ve never been out there – just as people went into the NY Harbor before the Hurricane coming in upon them to kayak despite the chaotic waves and currents known to be there before the storm even made landfall.

I’ve watched people in New York tell everyone from the news and weather experts to individuals who have experienced tornadoes, hurricanes and storm surges that their knowledge of New York took precedence over anything anyone could say to add to that knowledge and those things would not impact New York City in the ways people were telling them ahead of time. No one could tell them any different in any manner that made any sense to them – without them discrediting that information – and I watched the same thing happen this week as reporters spoke with people in Oklahoma prior to the storms dropping more tornadoes on top of them. They know about tornadoes and flooding, there isn’t anything that can be added to that knowledge since some times in the past when a tornado spawning event occurred, it went around them or because some of the times that the National Weather Center called tornado warnings in an area, those events were minimal in damaging only a few things a bit, such as tearing some roofs off down one stretch of road or knocking over some barns or flooding a few streets with a few inches of water which quickly retreated.

In some of the information used by local and state officials to assess the risk of tornado events to areas of Oklahoma – (and there are the same things for every other area of the Midwest and Deep South) – the numbers are so skewed in their statistical interpretation that it makes it look like those events would be somewhere in the neighborhood of “unlikely” rather than “likely”. But, common sense says it is likely that these storm events will spawn tornadoes and even flooding throughout all of these states of the Midwest and Oklahoma, in particular since that state has the most serious tornadoes and the highest number of those serious tornadoes every year since records have been kept. It is a set of known facts that storm shelters, properly reinforced basements and safe rooms can and do save lives. It is proven by countless studies made by engineers, scientists and academics that the only safe place to be during a tornado is under ground in a storm shelter, basement, storm cellar, or in a reinforced safe room. It isn’t a maybe.

It is also known that driving into flooded streets is wrong for life and limb. It is known that hurricane and tornado force winds can drive any and every thing into car windows, into walls and into the human body. It is known that any car, truck, 18-wheeler, heavy crane, heavy equipment, farm equipment, bulldozers, SUV, any vehicle can be sucked up into the air by a tornado, can be swept off by moving water, can be overturned and crushed by tornadoes and strong winds – these are definitely NOT SAFE places to be. And yet, people ignore that and believe that to be unruffled by it all and to not take cover or even to go get in their car to go drive around during the extreme weather means that they are somehow doing the right thing.

It used to be that we could not predict the weather well enough to warn people. And, admittedly some events unfold faster than others with tornadoes that is true in one way, but not in another since the storm cells that create those tornadoes can be interpreted as having that danger before the fact now. Landslide dangers are known after wildfires and heavy rains, flooding can be expected by any reasonable person after heavy rains locally or regionally where those events are feeding into streams and rivers.

But more so – our media outlets tell of these things nationally conveying them to every area of the country whether it is severe dry, wildfire dangers in an area, swollen rivers that are likely to be flooding in the days ahead, massive storm cells approaching that can and likely will produce tornadoes, lighting, hail and heavy rain – and between every manner of media outlet these are being conveyed to the public. And, yet, people at their workplaces are coming home into events saying they didn’t know. Truckers and other drivers are seen driving directly into the tornadoes on the ground (in videos that can be seen from the news and on YouTube where fellow drivers clicked it with their cellphones).

This week two women likely drowned and their rescuers including a sheriff and Fish and Game officer in Arkansas drowned trying to save them when their vehicle should have never even been in that situation at all. Pictures show that people were driving around Oklahoma City well into the night despite traffic lights being out and some streets severely flooded and amidst continuing heavy rains after tornadoes had ripped through several areas. There is no good reason that they would have been in their cars running around in it and more accidents were caused by them doing it than even the storm itself caused.

Those things among others like the 22 year old mother who left her two children for eight hours locked in her car while she worked which killed one and critically injured the other – along with a vast number of other children’s deaths from this same thinking that caused people to leave them locked in their car rather than taking those children into wherever with them – give me a very bad feeling that none of this can be fixed. campaigns to let people know of these dangers and the actions to take that will insure their safety against these dangers are either being ignored or discredited – maybe everyone thinks that doesn’t count for them or that it isn’t fashionable to take things that seriously. A person I met at the Memorial Day weekend barbecue said he used to be safety conscious but not so much anymore – he had decided to just not worry about it. And, although he was talking about these larger events like the storm surge and hurricane Sandy – I said that I just can’t help caring about safety and choose to do so – then I went and put the potato salad sitting in the sun onto a bowl of ice and moved it into the shade. But then, I’m the one that is crazy – I can’t afford the luxury of being stupid too.

– cricketdiane

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Oklahoma Twisters’ Deadly Lesson: You Can’t Run, So Hide

The twisters and heavy rains that swept through the area Friday evening flipped cars and trucks on interstate highways and swept up vehicles in deep flood waters.

The National Weather Service confirmed today that at least five tornadoes touched down Friday around Oklahoma City. The strongest of the tornadoes registered as an EF-3 south of El Reno.

(Etc.)

Officials said today that at least seven of the nine people killed by the storm were in their cars, including a mother and her baby.

“They were traveling on the interstate and their car was sucked up into the tornado and they were sucked out of their car,” Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Betsy Randolph said.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/oklahoma-twisters-deadly-lesson-run-hide/story?id=19302960#.UarEn2evCVo

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Virginia single mom left 2 young kids in car for 8 hours as she worked motel job — toddler son died, baby girl is critical

Brittney Downing, 22, has been charged for leaving her 18-month-old son and 2-month-old daughter alone in the vehicle for the duration of her shift Sunday because she couldn’t find a babysitter.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/single-mom-left-2-kids-car-8-hours-article-1.1359802#ixzz2V5YZdFvb

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Aired May 30, 2013 – 19:00   ET (the day before massive tornado event with 19 tornadoes confirmed)

We have breaking news on the program. Coming up at the top of the hour, more storm warnings across Oklahoma today, including the town of Moore which was so hit by the deadly tornado earlier this month. We’re going to live to CNN’s Chad Myers who is in the middle of it, chasing a storm with a possible tornado on the ground near him. Ominous weather, look at that.

Aired May 30, 2013 – 19:00   ET

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1305/30/ebo.01.html

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CNN Newsroom –

Aired May 30, 2013 – 15:00   ET (Thursday)

We’re going to get a break in as we’re following this breaking news. Samantha mentioned two active tornado warnings in Oklahoma, and it’s heading toward Moore, many of those neighborhoods in Moore, as you know, hit and leveled. People lost their homes, some lost lives in that EF-5 tornado last week. (etc.)

I want to bring in Jim Routon. Jim Routon is on the phone with me, because he lives in Moore, Oklahoma. Jim, you survived that EF-5 tornado last week. Thank goodness your home is still standing. I understand you were just helping friends with cleanup today. Where are you right now?JIM ROUTON, RESIDENT OF MOORE, OKLAHOMA (via telephone): Right now, I’m located just east of Briarwood Elementary on 19th Street and Santa Fe. And we’re just down here.

Had several people that — friends of mine that have lost their homes and we were just down there kind of helping with the cleanup process and cooking some food for the cleanup workers and the utility linesmen and stuff like that.

BALDWIN: So you’re helping out. Are you in your car right now?

ROUTON: I’m taking her and my daughter, J.C. (ph), and my two nieces, J.C. and Lexi (ph), over to the church, to Central Church of Christ, to volunteer to help pass out some supplies and medical supplies and food and stuff like that.BALDWIN: So it sounds to me, Jim, that you have a full car, and you are going on as business as usual, despite what we are reporting with these active tornado warnings and the storm heading towards Moore.

(It is worth reading the entire transcript of this one from the earlier tornado warnings in the text being broadcast and discussed to the rest of the conversation with this man who was so cavalier about the dangers even after the experience with the Moore EF5 tornado earlier in the week.)

Aired May 30, 2013 – 15:00   ET

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1305/30/cnr.11.html

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