WGBH Radio; The Callie Crossley Show

I'm Cally Crossley This is the Cali Crossley Show. Yesterday multiple tornadoes pounded western and central Massachusetts flipping cars flattening homes leaving four people dead dozens injured and staring fear in folks who are much more accustomed to bad weather in the form of snowstorms. Tornado warnings were issued for much of the state and all the devastation here was far less than the havoc wrought on other parts of the country. We're looking at how low casualty figures can go when it comes to tornado warnings and bracing for the twisters inevitable strike. But first we check in with this old house for primmer on what it takes to have a home that can withstand this kind of storm. We wrap up with another edition of pop culture with a focus on how to tornado proof your pooch. Up next funnel vision. A new twist on protecting everything from your house to your hound. First the news. From NPR News in Washington I'm Lakshmi saying Mitt Romney is

kicking off his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination this hour with a speech in New Hampshire. Job creation and other economic issues were expected to figure prominently in his comments. Romney's appearance comes a day before the government releases its monthly employment report on Wednesday fears about the pace of economic recovery sent U.S. stocks tumbling. Damage assessment is underway in western and central Massachusetts where residents say at least two fast forming tornadoes touched down yesterday afternoon in a region unaccustomed to twisters. The storm killed four people and injured dozens more. It also knocked out power to tens of thousands. State workers have the day off and schools are closed because authorities want people off the roads while they try to stabilize affected communities. In Springfield as many as a thousand National Guardsmen are patrolling the streets to discourage looting. The stock market has been trying to stabilize this morning a day after the Dow Industrial Average saw its largest drop of the year more than 2 percent. The losses were triggered by reports

showing the economy slowing. This morning's reading on unemployment is setting today's tone as well new claims for jobless benefits were down last week by 6000 to 400 22000. But as NPR's Joel Snyder reports claims are still high. The decline in new jobless claims last week was the third drop in four weeks but it was less than economists expected and for the past two months fresh applications have stayed above the 400000 mark and weekly numbers when the Labor Department are known to be volatile and there's been a lot of factors at play lately. The earthquake and tsunami in Japan caused trouble in the supply chain for motor vehicle plants and claims have also been distorted by bad weather in parts of the country. The four week moving average is a better measure of trends in the labor market. It fell for the second straight week but remains high. More than 400 25000 trial Snyder NPR News Washington. Japan's prime minister gets to keep his job a while longer today now to con survived a no confidence motion in parliament over his handling of Japan's response March's

earthquake and tsunami as well as the resulting nuclear plant damage. But the prime minister says he has only been in office a year says he's willing to resign once the country stabilizes. The president's top lawyer Bob Bauer is leaving the White House to return to his law firm. We have details from NPR's Carrie Johnson. Catherine Rambler has spent most of her career at the Justice Department she started out handling drug and violent crime cases in Washington D.C. and then took on a leading role in the prosecution of former Enron executives or helped run the Justice Department in the early days of the Obama administration. And since last year she's been a top deputy in the White House counsel's office giving advice on sensitive issues such as the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Carrie Johnson NPR News Washington. This is NPR. Mexico is rejecting the conclusions of a new report from the Global Commission on Drug Policy that says the war on drugs has failed. NPR's Jason Beaubien reports that top Mexican officials say they will push forward with their

military offensive against the cartels. The Global Commission on Drug Policy report comes from some of the world's top elder statesman former U.N. Secretary Kofi Annan former US Secretary of State George Shultz ex presidents of Columbia Mexico and Brazil among others in their new report. They slam the criminalization of narcotics as a failure. Quote with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world they call efforts to stop the flow of drugs futile and a waste of government resources. Mexican President Felipe Calderon and secretary for national security are a quickly rejected the report say Mexico's military will continue to attack organized crime. He said if drugs were legalized the Mexican cartels would simply expand their other criminal activities such as kidnapping and extortion. Jason Beaubien NPR News Mexico City. The Libyan woman who stormed into a hotel to tell reporters she'd been raped by government forces is being deported from Qatar to Benghazi the main stronghold of Libyan rebels fighting to oust Colonel

Moammar Gadhafi. U.N. officials say a month old baby and her parents were placed on a military plane about seven hours ago from Qatar. It's uncertain how a baby ended up in Doha in the first place. The FBI plans to investigate Google's claim that its e-mail system has been hacked by elements in China. The web browsing giant says the breach accounts include those belonging to senior U.S. officials. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calls the allegations very serious. This is NPR. Support for NPR comes from Cargill working with customers around the world to connect ideas to opportunities across food agriculture finance and industry. Cargill dot com. Good afternoon I'm Kalee Crossley. This is the Cali Crossley Show yesterday multiple tornadoes pounded western and central Massachusetts flipping cars flattening homes leaving four people dead and dozens injured in a

state where we are more accustomed to hurricanes and snowstorms. We're looking at how prepared we are for tornadoes. We begin the conversation with a look at our homes and what kind of structures can really withstand these types of storms. Joining me on the line is Tom Silva. He's a general contractor for this old house and ask this old house. Tom thank you for joining us. It's my pleasure. Oh you're fine. Listen people in Western Massachusetts are picking up the pieces literally this morning and they'll be looking to rebuild their homes while others are going to try to figure out how to strengthen the homes that were able to withstand yesterday's storm. So I guess the first question is. It seems to me that I as I understand it standard design building codes for homes are really not meant to withstand tornadoes is that right. Exactly. A tornado is a force that is still powerful and it comes in so quickly. Think of a tornado

like a splitting maul when you're trying to split wood. You can take a heavy splitting off and hold it onto a piece of wood and and you get up boys and you drop it real quick and that's Force along with the weight will split a lot. If you take hurricane for example and you take that same wedding maw and you pull over that onto a piece of wood and you try to parse through the wood without without swinging them off you don't have that force coming at you so rapidly. So the houses where we banned the force of the wind longer because it's gradually coming on so it's not so quick it's not like a guillotine coming right. So building your house to withstand a tornado is pretty difficult. You have to build like a bunker a concrete bunker. Now believe it or not there are actually houses that you can build like a bunker to withstand a

tremendous amount of force that we have concrete building our own creek and it's made out of insulated form that are build with Bond Street and steel. But you still would have to worry about the roof and the windows being beautiful on off or the windows being blown and but the structure itself but walls they would stand for is that those that building material known as ICF insulating concrete forms. Yes. Yeah. I think the FBI is going to concrete on this theory and or on dates connected to it on both sides and the wall thickness can be from orange to a 12 a.m. 16 and depend on the size of the panel that you would want. Now just to be clear are people who are in a high risk areas using ICF mostly to build their homes or to adapt their homes just in case. Or is this something that just every now and then somebody uses I think if every now and

then you get more and more prevalent in the Midwest it's more prevalent down south we're starting to see Borat that type of structure near us but I think there's being it because of that green aspect of it because the concrete sand in Portland and the foam on the walls. If you were a super in the way that wall but the super strong super quiet structure. Here in Massachusetts a lot of people have basements typically more so than in preps in other parts of the country and that's considered kind of a safe room. So there is an ongoing argument as I understand it about whether or not you want to build the house with this expensive stuff to withstand it or whether you just want to go ahead and invest if you're going to do that in a safe room. And if you don't want to build a whole other structure as a safe room. I wonder Tom Silva of This Old House can ask this old house if you can

reinforce your bathroom or your basement as a safe house. Well you can build a safe room in your bill that they think of it you can go to. They were in your building. Like a concrete structure a structure that would be oh let's say for example I think the cheapest way to do it is if you got a brand new holding tank for example that you would use in your house if you had it like us that stick to the menu and you place it into the ground half way deep into the ground and you made an accessible to it so that you could get in and get out quickly with no windows ventilation obviously you could go into that and you would have a base structure if you wanted to build it in a room that all of you would go and build it. Those that had built really strong so that something wouldn't collapse on to it and

all of it would have to be attached in a way that it can't be pulled out of the. So if you have a house for example that's built on a concrete slab and there is no basement. You could build it but you would have the walls to the to the concrete system so that they would be part of it. Be it you know with mechanical fasteners. And I mean let's face it we build our houses today with new restrictions. We build our houses in different parts of the country for hurricanes we built it for earthquakes and the way that we have made our building deference stronger is by mechanical fasteners by engineered material by by adding more plywood are defending up the wall structure and the fasteners. And the adhesive that are used to apply this them to the structure and make the structure United so it bought at the base of the structure and it goes all the way up through the roof.

That's how you defined it up and is there any particular house that's most vulnerable I think of when you think of New England you think of this old housing you can't have this kind of strong interrelated tough connections that you're talking about now right. Or does our new they do a lot of well they don't have the connection to the hilt. Think of the house for example that would build it right now we're working on the House right now but this is the house. Then they can hand me that they've been at it out of the house and and basically it's built on I don't structure a rubble stone foundation. The connection between that rubble and the underside of this hill is just this nothing to marry the two together it's sitting there today if I was to build a house and it would be a ranch house or be in it would it be a ghost and be a mouse or it could be a big furry now I have to make a connection between that and that Dante can ignite the

two together so it cannot be blown off to lift it off easily. Tony if you look at different types of directions you say well what is an ant they. I would say the lighter the structure the more prevalent it is to an extent damaged in a high wind like a mobile home for example. Well what about a brick houses a brick house heavier a brick houses every year but if you look at them. If it any of if you've seen any of the you know I've seen it yeah yeah yeah. You look at the brick building been in the Springfield area for example the top level was blown off of it practically and the brick is just bumbled away OK. Because because the law in that case you got an older building the mortar is a weaker mortar. They built years ago with basically the lime light either going there. The heat isn't as strong but the building moves with the different temperatures so they they last for a long time but when you get something that came in

so quickly and so awful if it's going to it's going to hit the structure it's going to hit that structure the structure is going to hit the wall. It's going to pull the breath out of the way. All right so we're all too well always told that we hear the advice is go to the bathroom or or go to a closet. Is there anything that we should be doing to strengthening either of those rooms to make them safer places to go if you're not building a new house. Yeah if you have a room in your house I always I always say figure on or is the best part. So if you have a bathroom. In the center of the house there are centrally located. You take a corner of that bathroom for example you walk up the window. It's a small room that can find if you if you take that back structure that rule those three walls of four walls and before you dry wall those walls of blue boarded up plastic tiles you covered the entire room with Kwai would

you move it and nail the plywood to the structure you are defining how that room commend it. So you are creating a real tight envelope by covering it with widely. You're locking the bottom of the wall which is called the spill and the top of the wall is called the plate on the header together uniting but you're also linking this between with nails and fasteners. So you're not allowing them to always be black. You're also stiffening up the room laterally against any movement so it makes the base secure in that Small's base. Wrong. Well Tom Silva that's very valuable advice and I know a lot of people are going to be thinking about it as they try to go forward with rebuilding both their homes and either their closets or bathrooms. Thank you so much. OK we've been speaking with Tom Silva he's a general contractor for this old house and ask

this old house which you can watch on WGBH two Saturdays at 5:00 p.m. and on WGBH 44 on Wednesdays at 8 p.m.. Up next we talk about the histories of tornadoes the history of tornadoes in Massachusetts and tornado preparedness. We'll be back after this break. Stay with us. Coming up. Support for WGBH comes from you and from Lincoln featuring a luxury hybrid that gets an estimated 41 mpg in the city. A crossover that uses voice and touch commands and a sedan featuring available active park assist technology link and it's not just luxury it's smarter than that. And from masterpiece Sunday night on WGBH to. Davids who Shays the iconic detective CULE par role in Agatha Christie's appointment with death. Whodunit. Watch Masterpiece Sunday night at 9:00 on WGBH too. The new movie beginners stars Ewan McGregor as a graphic artist whose 75 year old

father played by Christopher Plummer has just come out and wants to experience the gay life he denied himself when he was married. The film was written and directed by Mike Mills based on the story of his father. We'll talk with Mike Mills on the next FRESH AIR. Join us. This afternoon at two on eighty nine point seven. WGBH. Rough cut with Tommy Mack is the next great show to join the legacy of home improvement programs from WGBH television is unlike any you've ever had right now. WGBH is offering you the chance to win all access passes to be Tommy Mack on the set of ruff the great new series produced by enjoying a private studio tour. Lunch with Tommy and a taping of an upcoming episode details an entry on line at WGBH dot org. Brian O'Donovan. Come join me every Saturday at 3:00 for the good old fashioned session on a

Celtic sojourn on a 9.7 WGBH. I'm Cally Crossley This is the Calla Crossley Show. If you're just joining us we're talking about tornadoes this hour with a look at the history of tornadoes in Massachusetts and what it means to prepare for these kinds of storms. I'm joined by Tom gra zealot. He's the founder of the tornado project. He's studied and chased tornadoes for two decades and has catalogued them from 16 to 80 all the way to present day. He joins us from St. Johnsbury Vermont. Welcome. Also with me is Irwin Redlener director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. He's the author of Americans at risk why we are not prepared for Mega Disasters and what we can do now. Welcome. Thank you. To be here. Just to set the context for this conversation on the heels of what happened in Springfield

Massachusetts I want to give our listeners a chance to hear an eyewitness account from a resident of Springfield Massachusetts speaking with a reporter from WTNH in Connecticut. That's when I walk into the house I saw signs like you know black clouds and stuff like that. And so many when strong we start shaking the house and stuff and I told my wife you know I'm just getting about the last six or so and shelter. And I we have almost no time like you know. Dr. Redlener that's the thing that struck me is he said we had no time. So you wonder about warnings you wonder. And this is what I believe is it and we've been hearing this from some people that people just really didn't believe it was going to be serious now we're going to talk to talk a little bit later about about why that may be. But. Not used to having tornadoes in urban areas here in Massachusetts nowhere certainly not and that of course the problem because one of the things that disaster planners think about when they're trying to educate particular communities is what

what are the real risks in this particular area. So if you live in the you know near the base of Mt. St. Helens you're worried about something entirely different if you were living on it over the stand in various earthquake seismic and or the moderate new moderate earthquake seismic zone in the middle of the country. You are obviously worried about earthquakes and so on and so forth. Hurricanes in the southeast. But but typically tornadoes are not a Northeastern type of problems. So there has been very little attention paid to this kind of disaster which is what we would categorize in the no warning type of disaster just simply not on the minds of most citizens or emergency planners for that matter. Now this gentleman that we just heard said he had virtually no time I've heard several people say they had maybe 10 minutes. Is that enough. Well it's you know you know time is never obviously that's not enough. It's 10 minutes now for 10 minutes could be enough if you heard the warning number one and number two you had a

place a safe place to go. And as far as the latter point is concerned people in the northeast again really don't it's not on their mind. So with thinking about what we do in the event of a tornado is not something that you know that that leaps to mind but we many of us and most of us I think live in private homes at least have a basement would serve as a reasonable place to be in the event of a tornado when you're in your community. Thomas chrysalis you have been studying these tornadoes and their patterns for many years. I do think it's interesting that you're from western Massachusetts and that was the site and time of the last big tornado in 1953. You lived through that. Well I was south of the path. I was not actually in it. I can't call myself a survivor and of course that one doesn't doesn't compare at all to the Springfield want to spring for one doesn't compare to the Worcester tornado that was the

tornado was compared. With the worst most intense tornadoes that ever hit the earth anywhere. And after the worst a tornado than you get a series of others in Massachusetts which are have been about every 20 years have been deadly but they're forgotten fairly soon because they don't affect large communities usually and they don't make a big a big thing than they did on the news. SPRINGFIELD I always thought was was pretty lucky in the past we've had tornadoes at Great Barrington on to the west and to the South Pole in Connecticut at Windsor Locks in Worcester to the east of Lawrence to the northeast a lot of the big West Stockbridge a few years ago. Though Springfield has been kind of surrounded by by killer tornadoes over the past 50 years. But as big a target is it as it is it was just not hit.

Coincidentally. Which of course changed yesterday. The one in Western 1053 94 people were dead four people are dead and many more injured in this one in Springfield. From your studying the patterns and the frequency of tornadoes all over but particularly in this area what would you have predicted based on that in terms of a tornado of this magnitude hitting in hitting Springfield or just in our area. Well I think it's it's pretty random all over and there doesn't seem to be any real pattern in Massachusetts or in the way. It's there randomly hit 1898 people died in the Lawrence and then way out in Great Barrington some you know you had three people killed there. And then in Webster So it's scattered around and it takes a bit but every 20 years there's a serious a serious outbreak of tornadoes and somebody dies and then about every 10 years there's a smaller one here scattered here and there

very randomly and which one person dies and in some odd situation whether it's a Boy Scout camp or somebody is in a boat or a garage collapses. But it's. There is no pattern and there is NO NO real time frame which you can predict is going to be another one but there have been going on for a hundred years. The random occasional lot of tornadoes going on for a hundred years and I'm sure will continue. Cali I want than I could about what the what are the long warning systems like investors there's not enough familiar specifically with that but you know in the in places like Missouri and other places where we are all going home or we think of tornadoes as a more more prevalent problem there are warning alarms and there's a lot of educational what to do. But those can frequently give you know a 20 minute to 30 minute warning to people but are there similar types of things. And that's.

I don't know of any of the certainly the weather service is going to provide a public comes to know a weather radio and radio stations and the TV stations are going to provide information about rotation within the within a thunderstorm. Massachusetts is pretty pretty weather conscious I mean Massachusetts has a real history particularly eastern Mass or early history. Like me going all the way back to the Don Kent era. Oh wow 950 has a real history of good weather forecasting and good weather awareness. Well Colleen I think a lot of people weren't surprised and I'm not only wanted 20 NATO that the that the issue here is if in fact the frequency is as it is then maybe one of the things that Massachusetts and other states in New England to be considering is you know it's a very big difference. You know having information available on the radio or television and actually having a warning siren. Absolutely yes and that's one of the things that actually has to be on the table.

Well if you take the Springfield area since it's never been hit you know how long with a warning siren be actually maintained over the hours the years before it rusted and now and became inoperable I mean mass issues has been here for a couple hundred years and Springfield has just been. It's pretty hard to convince anybody in these tight budget areas to start spending money on things like sirens for something that has never occurred. Well here's a question I have and you know both of you can address it and that is how do you make people understand what serious and I get to that point I guess. Irwin Redlener your point is well taken about the warning sign because warning signal maybe that would have made people say this is serious. I was there. I don't live in western Massachusetts but I was in my car as these guys were darkening and it was very ugly looking. And at that point I thought to myself you know this could actually be something. And before that I did not take it seriously and we've listened to many eyewitnesses and they said the same thing a it's a

storm. You know why is this different from any other storm they just so I don't know what language or even what the authorities could have said to the media to make it clear that this was and in fact quite serious. Well is it. This is a this is the challenge for disaster play why it is so terribly difficult because we're asking individuals as well as government to make investments in what amounts to rare events. So we either do or don't take that seriously I think is the somewhat constant thing there's plenty of reason because then especially in Western Massachusetts that and what ones what people do is you you just keep maintaining this system and practicing it even and make sure that people know what to do if they hear it. And that's how you do disaster preparedness that is it is really all about preparing for the the rare event that could be deadly. And what you need. You know it's like people rarely have a house fire

people. I mean how many people have their houses burned down but everybody has a fire alarm systems and you know know basically what to do. Presumably I mean how many people wear seat belts actually have a you know head on collision you know hardly anybody really distinctly. So I think part of the approach or strategy about preparedness and keeping you know optimizing survival after major event is for people to make these investments beforehand otherwise we're just going to be subject to whatever happens and you know take that. People have an awful lot of things they do and that's why they love it but I think you're a bigger a bigger threat and if you can just keep drilling in the people what to do. Head for the basement head for the closet. Yeah and just drill that in and hopefully they'll make the right reaction at the right time when when the time comes. Yeah in that one minute warning they've got they're going to do the right thing and I think that happens a lot in

Springfield. What people caught out in the open I mean there's nothing you can do. Well that was going to be one of my questions because I have heard and to please tell me if this is an old wives tale that if the skies turns green then you that's a that's a that's an eye witness kind of warning in addition to anything else anybody else may say is that correct or wrong with the severity of the storm the greenness is probably something to do with the hail and the way the light is reflected and refracted within the and absorbed within the storm cloud. And if you've got that much hail in there then you're talking about once a very severe storm. So if you've got that color in your face in a major event and you need to get to under something or low or just get out of the open Don't be in the open. Well I have to say I didn't know that before now so you know this is the kind of information that I don't know that everybody knows maybe everybody did but I didn't know that. I know a lot of you know.

Lot of people in the Midwest know this guy better than we do in terms of what's severe and what's not severe but they're full to a roar they may hear a roar and think it's the roar of a big hailstorm and it's actually the roar of a tornado behind the rain that they can't see. So there it's there's a lot of it's complicated. People in the Midwest are more or less. You think they're more or less ready but I'm not sure what the story was at Joplin. While a hundred and thirty something people died in a well-worn storm. What we just talked to Tom Silva from This Old House about structures and whether one can prove one's home essentially no but you can do some other. Well that's another matter. If not you can I guess the chances of being hit by an EF 4 or 5 something it's going to sweep the home away completely is extraordinarily rare. Well that's what he said but he had a really great idea I thought the ply would just take you know putting plywood a layer of plywood all around the closet or all around the

bathroom just to add additional reinforcement. That little bit of reinforcement might have saved a lot of lives. You don't need proof that it's not really to save your life by going to six inches of steel reinforced concrete. Yeah you can if they don't have the choice of how it would be affordability and the economic cost of repairing it and who's really at risk and it turns out the new. Many kinds of disasters tornadoes included people with limited economic assets are going to be much more vulnerable because they're more likely for example. Certainly the case in Joplin more likely to find a house with the absence of the basement. More likely to be living in a trailer home. More likely to be living is just to fill with stuff on the ground and so forth and you know it is just something that that needs to pay attention to and that we need to understand who are the more vulnerable

populations and and who would be most affected in this tornado this way or any other time faster and really give special attention to those. It was you know at this time Brazil is does the data that you've been studying over time lead you to give us any any sense of. Of an ability to predict more severe storms coming our way or fewer or just the fact that we are going to get some and we should be looking expecting that. Not and not in regard to tornadoes I don't see any trend despite how bad this year was. I don't see any any any trend in tornadoes at all there have been unusual spikes for the past 200 years. And usual spikes in the number of deaths and the number of tornadoes in one year. Oh yeah. Alabama and Joplin and now Springfield mean nothing without arms of pattern. I don't think so. Actually the number of intense tornadoes in some by some measurements has been declining.

This was extraordinarily unusual to see this happen very much unexpected considering the decline in terms of the increase I see flooding as a over over my lifetime. I see the frequency of flooding is increasing and the last 10 to 15 years of severe rainfall and excessive rainfall in the Northeast increasing. If you want to call that a severe storm. But the classification of severe storms sometimes don't include flooding because you can have a relatively mild storm that sits in one place for eight hours and for and ends up producing a phenomenal moderate rain. But to me the rainfall and flooding is increasing just as a not entirely off of the off the cuff but using some available data

but not not in regard to tornadoes or severe storms in terms of hail and the lightning and things like that. So for our area in the next year or so five years 10 years don't don't look for another tornado per se but I don't want to say it's like I'm just. Thank you. You know if it's only once every 10 years you could have this year is the end of a 10 year period next year or the beginning of it then OK you don't want to tell people that you just want it. I would make the coverts larger and I would be be really aware of any stream near you and it's what it's potential in. And finally from you Irwin Redlener what is the one or two things that people should do to be prepared as you've already said in your book why we are not prepared for Mega Disasters and what we can do now so what can we do now. Those of us who are scared to death after just what happened and feel sure and I think it's a very legitimate question the first point is to be aware of the fact that this is it that it is really

a risk in your area and think about what you want to do in advance in terms of being and getting prepared and think about exactly where you would go in your house if a tornado was coming and that that overrides everything in other words if you got every family to say OK here's the place we've identified your house is the best we can do we don't have a basement but we will be in the bathroom and we may even go and do that. That plywood reinforcement that time and your other speaker we're talking about but have that known in advance. But the way on of people running around helping you out there not knowing what to do. And the second. Thing is I really would have it as their their government local government and state government to provide funds. Is that an appropriate early warning system that wearing that down sirens when tornadoes are impending So people have as much time as possible to get out of harm's way. And if and overall I guess we just need to take these the warnings at the

meteorologist give us a little bit more seriously. Thank you both very much. We have been talking about the history of tornadoes and tornado preparedness with Tom Brazil s founder of the tornado project in St. Johnsbury Vermont. And Irwin Redlener director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. He's the author of Americans at risk why we are not prepared for Mega Disasters and what we can do now. Thank you again. Thank God. Up next it's another edition of pop culture ask Dog Lady Monica Collins is taking your calls talking about protecting and rescuing dogs from disasters. We're at 8 7 7 3 0 170 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 call now if you need advice. We'll be back after this break stay with us. Support for WGBH comes from you and from Elsa Dorfman Cambridge

portrait photographer. Still clicking with the jumbo format Polaroid 20 by 24 analog camera and original Polaroid film online at Elsa Dorfman dot com. That's Elsa Dorfman dot com and from foot stock where you can find European comfort and fashion footwear that caters to active and casual lifestyles in Wellesley square Main Street in Concord center and Newbury Street in Boston's Back Bay. Foot stock shoes dot com. Next time on the world attacking the supply line of Colombia's cocaine trade the number one cost. It's not the coca leaf. It's actually chemicals ordinary Baking soda is used to refine cocaine same goes for other household chemicals. So authorities limit how much customers can buy. And that's because some cocaine labs to shut down our story from Colombia next time on the world. Coming up at three o'clock here at eighty nine point seven WGBH. When you support WGBH not only will you be doing your part for public broadcasting you'll also unlock some great discounts with your WGBH member. From theater

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here today to take your calls if you need advice about how to tornado proof your dog. We know that none of you want your dogs to end up like Toto stranded in the Land of Oz longing to get off that yellow brick road. But if you have questions about how to keep your dog land bound or anything else for that matter where it's 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. I need to mention we have only 20 minutes with Monica So time is of the essence. You can tweet us or post a question to our face book page. That's again 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. Monica welcome back. Thank you Cali. Now let me start this way out coming into work yesterday driving into the garage this huge thunderclap and I'm not you know how to Thunder Run. I literally leaped in my car. Yes so I can only imagine what that level of sound could do to an animal or a pit. Who's here. Their hearing is many times greater than ours. So that

yeah kind. Before the tornado by the way in the morning so I want to let's start there you know what do you do. Well you've got that kind of Thunder going on that kind of I mean that intensity that would obviously distress a pay well. Kelly let me refer to the whole Dog Journal. People can Google it and I have a subscription to it it's really a great publication it's a newsletter. But I just got my whole dog journal in the mail and the lead story is can't avoid noise. Five Things to Do When Your dog is afraid of thunder and or fireworks. Number one that you should stay home with your dog when you know a thunder storm is coming. What if you're working. Well this is it. If you can yes stay home with your dog around your dog. OK. Number two and all of this is not quite. Right to go as you point out but they're just offering these suggestions. Number two and this is what I did last night with my own dog Shorty. Hold your dog you just I just kind of put an arm around them when the

worst of the lightning and thunder claps were going over our house last night. Did you feel your dog reacting to it as he has gotten older and this will happen with a lot of dogs. They get more skittering they get more freaked out by things in the beginning. He wasn't I totally ignored him during a thunderstorm because this is what I've heard you should do and I believe it works that you should be like that song in the King and I whenever I feel afraid I hold my head up high and whistle a happy tune. That's how you should be around your dog in a thunderstorm. You cannot let your dog see you flinch. If you had a dog in the car with you you know I would have been you know I was almost through the roof of the car it was that. Also you should manage the intensity of the stimulus close the windows to keep out the sound. Put your dog in if your dog. My dog loves his bed in the closet. It's a very good place for him to go during a storm. And obviously as well

during a tornado. But the counter condition this is not advice that I endorse. This is getting a CD. Evidently you can get one it find sounds dot com CDs of thunder and cracks of lightning that you can keep playing for your own dog sensitization. Right exactly. You can put it on your CD player and then just keep feeding treats to kind of get your dog used to the something that works just like it does with some human some humans out to be fine for others not so much. Absolutely and the fifth thing of course is I hate this one. Drugs that you can talk to your veterinarian about anti-depressant anti-anxiety medications. Well the dog would have to be reacting pretty strongly to yes exactly like I once heard of a German Shepherd that wore its nails down to a bloody pulp. Oh my God. During thunderstorms clawing at the concrete in the garage. In that case yes that

dog needs an intervention OK. Also there is now something we had a caller that we referred to this about a month ago called the thunder shirt thunder shirt. Amazon Dot Com sells these under certs. What I found interesting and you can find them anywhere else but but Google funder sure. What I found interesting is that the I looked at the feedback from people that had gotten these they liked my older Dell mation has severe thunderstorm anxiety she shivers Hyde's pants and whines and is terrible. I was another skeptical shopper but willing to try the thunder shirt after reading about in my Yahoo group. I am happy to say that we have had very good results. OK our numbers 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 by the way maybe some of you listening have tried thunder shirt and it worked particularly in this last intense storm 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 just something to try.

I don't work for Thunder shirts. Right well not find it but yeah it's something to try. Right now I was looking at one of the letters sent to you that also speaks to the beginning frightened of doing thunderstorms dear dog lady. I saw your recent column about the dog who gets frightened during thunderstorms and ants and the owners question about medications. I'll pass along something I receive from my connections with Airedale terrier rescue and adoption. When a storm starts or threatens take a dryer sheet in a brand of fabric softener sheets and rub down your dog. I don't recall the details but it has something to do with static electricity in the atmosphere during a storm that a dog senses the dryer sheet eliminates the static and the dog calms down. I tried this with my wire fox terrier and it did work. Now you've tried. I endorse this but I don't endorse the. The brand name fabric softener sheets because they're full of chemicals. You just don't want to be rubbing down your dog's skin with these things. However I have

found there are green fabric softener sheets that you can try with your dog and it very well may work 8 7 7 3 1 8 9 7 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. Running down the clock with Ask dog lady if you have questions. When you say green fabric sheets do you mean organic. Was it me there with no petroleum no harsh chemicals no per fams no parens no chlorine no alcohol no dyes. So if I said if I felt one I probably wouldn't feel like the other ones have kind of a sticky feeling it might not. Yeah OK. But they supposedly do the same thing. OK they're just hypo allergenic as well now we've seen. Now that's the thunderstorm which is on the front end of any sort of really big disaster like a tornado as we have seen in in Springfield where four people are now dead and and many others injured. And when this happens people you know often lose their animals we've seen this in Joplin Missouri.

And it's terrible. A lot of people are devastated afterwards. I know you want to talk about an organization in our area that is just fantastic during disasters So tell us about it. The Northeast animal shelter up in Salem has been very active during Katrina. They're active with Puerto Rican streets. They just do a lot of rescuing. And here's what I have to say about the animal rescue community. They are amazing these people. They swoop in to Joplin or well in Joplin. I did read that the animal shelter was left unscathed so the animal shelter could keep taking in lost animal lost animals. And I've posted on the ass dog lady. Facebook page. Heartbreaking photo that I found of a little dog being lifted out of the rubble by rescuers. You know no humans around that belong to this little dog. But rescuers were rescuing dogs and you saw that this was a

Chihuahua and obviously very well pampered because it was a little corpulent and so you knew that it means fat. I knew it was someone's cherished pet OK and this is what gets in times like this. Well what gets us right now is that a phone call from Shell from Winthrop Go ahead please you're on the Cali Crossley Show. Well I actually do have a couple of Toto dogs. Karen carriers are one. Well let me know several hours before a storm is arriving. Yeah. But changing the parametric pressure. Yeah I got a coat for him. Yes he's saying the for the binder code he should keep canceled he wouldn't go out. You wouldn't drink water. He wouldn't eat. Yeah and with this thunder code he's still nervous but he has settled down and what I find is he's a lot happier as he can be next to some metal pipe to us and try and key actually goes to the edge of the bath tub and

ask to be put in the cab and health. And the knight in there is the star. They incredible These are incredible. Wow. So when you say Thunder sure Cheryl just want to be clear is that the same thing. I mean thunder code is that the same thing as thunder sure. Yes it is. OK Bender sure it is named as direct teachers even Tiriel Yeah funny idea of swaddling a baby yeah i'm them and if I can get it on him when he first starts getting wide eyed and canting it seems to really make a difference if I wait and then full throttle can explode and it's a little harder to get it I'm just absolutely in the Tell Me What do you think about the dryer sheet theory you know I haven't tried that line. Kind of crunchy granola all natural right and my right so I have not tried out what I have used with some success. It's a couple drops of Rescue Remedy and his oh I've heard about that.

Yes yes yes and you know that that help and that that I. Are you is certified in the event Mary told me off the sea. Yeah and so we also use something called Star of Bethlehem which is just good to kind of calm him down. OK if you've got a manic it's really hard to do anything he doesn't want to be healthy. One you know people and yes I know my my dog too when he gets into the shaking full throttle panic he runs from me. Yeah you know I said as I said I have two dogs both carrying Kerry and the other one could care less. Yeah well he's a talented vidual terrier there either this or that. Thank you very much for the call Cheryl. All right by now Our number is 8 7 7 3 0 1 8 9 7 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. Ask Dog Lady Monica Collins is here talking about dogs in thunderstorms and rescuing animals after disasters lit in the car go ahead please you're on the Kelly Crossley Show.

I I wanted to but you and I it's all forms of standard cheap but maybe like understeer. I have a story carrier Guarino and she used to be I'm sure a lot of wonders or I'm gone for the condors dart and it's like nothing but she's absolutely comfortable and just thinking about it. Well I did kind of the material and I wonder what they don't tell you know. Well done. Anarchy here and you talk a lot. Yeah it very well might very well might have very well might be working on the dryer sheet theory as well that it takes gets off that static electricity and it protects the dog or the dog feels protected in that way. That's incredible I mean that's oh these are wonderful things to try with your dog. They really are.

Particularly when each dog is very different it's very different what might work for you. Exactly. Try different things are the strongest and you just don't just don't care and then what do we write. What I never thought Oh great. The Land thank you very much for calling in. Thank you. If I were 8 7 7 3 0 1 8 9 7 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 7 if you want to speak with Ask Dog Lady Monica Collins I do want to get because you mention that very poignant story about the dog being rescued in Joplin Missouri. Yeah. I wanted to mention that there were several stories about dogs that were blown miles away you know and found there there were some of them were crippled one dog had two broken legs I posted this on my Facebook page as well. This was blown miles and made its way home to the concrete slab that had been it's where the house was first house yeah on two broken

legs two broken front legs crawled home and two broken front legs for me and please excuse me while I go sob for a moment of this but the dog was treated. Volunteer veterinarians and the legs were put into casts and it looks like it was it was that dog reunited with its family do we know that the family was in a broken state itself and they said we can't deal with the dog now we love the dog but so the dog will be offered up for adoption after it heals. All right Sally from Burlington you're on the Cali Crossley Show Go ahead please. I have a 12 year old rescued from North Carolina and he gets pretty freaked out by thunder and what he does has goes up and he gets into my shower stall. Yeah. And I close the door sort of so that he's just in the shower and he sits there and it seems to calm him down considerably. The other thing I've heard is that if you wrap a dog in business

from a woman who I go to a camp called Gone with the dog. Oh yes I'm here Monte Yes very much. And one of the ladies who is a therapeutic touch a lady just wrapping the dog in an Ace bandage around and I'm not sure exactly sure how to do it but around his body and again the tightness of the bandage seems to hold him together and for dogs that are upright and under it seems to work too. Another suggestion. Well thank you so much I think that ace bandage theory works on the same principle as the thunder shirt. You don't have to pay as much. That's right you doubt it. Thank you very much Sally for the call. Thank you for calling in. Okay. In addition to the dog crawling home on two broken legs to its home or where its home used to be they used another dog rescue dog to find people in the rubble.

Little small dog in Joplin Missouri so you just want to put that out there too that that was part of the new law that was very nice. They feel that this dog was used to fine. It's called the smallest canine working in Joplin. Oh and they could crawl into the yard there what kind of a dog it was. Let's see where we're going to be right Russell terrier. Oh yeah small Yeah. And so we could get into these tight spaces and alert the rescue teams when people were found and that was tremendously important in the rescue effort. Well when you look at. Let's let's look at Toto toto got the best of it. Toto got carried up by the tornado with Toto's beloved Dorothy and they got plunked down in this magic kingdom of good and bad wicked witches and good witches and Toto had a real adventure and Toto got home safely with his beloved keeper. That doesn't happen you know of course

but you know you can protect your pet as much as you want to. You have it all and you're responsible for your pets welfare. I was thinking that this would be another reason to really have some identifying information on the pit so should you be disconnected. Yes you can say hey that's my that's my dog. Absolutely absolutely. Yes microchips are are advancing in the technology. At first nobody really knew oh yeah the dog has a microchip but how do you know national wears a registry for these things. Oh I see where you can look up. If no one knows who your vet is you know it's going to be able to look up who you are. Oh it's big. Anyway it's a beginning. Thank you very much ass dog Lady Monica Collins for some sage advice and timely in this right after this terrible disaster and Springfield Massachusetts. Well thank you Carol. Monica Collins writes the syndicated column Ask dog lady you can go to ask dog lady dot com to ask a question or make a comment or visit

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