Hey Thanks, @NashSevereWx,
Can we talk about the term “hero” for a second?
It’s a term that gets abused a lot. Certainly sports fans hear it tossed around casually to describe a person running with a ball or kicking a ball or catching a ball — it’s almost always in the context of someone having a ball, unless it’s an Olympics year — even though all the “hero” has done is perform a feat of physical prowess.
In this pandemic year, hopefully we’ve moved beyond mere athleticism as the bar for our heroes. I’ve been moved to tears by the self-sacrifice of health care workers, for example, who have sometimes quarantined themselves away from family in order to care for seriously ill COVID-19 patients.
Which brings me to the guys behind @NashSevereWx, Nashville’s favorite Twitter account for weather news. In the moments before the March 3 tornado ripped through the city, their warnings saved lives. This is not an abstract claim: On the day following the storm, walking through the wreckage in East Nashville, I personally talked to at least a dozen folks who told me that they knew to seek safety thanks to the @NashSevereWx feed. People without power (and thus without broadcast TV to warn them) instinctively turned to their phones for a trusted voice in a dangerous moment.
I can state without a single bit of doubt that @NashSevereWx saved lives in that storm. I know, because storm victims told me so. But I’m reluctant to call the guys who run the account heroes, mainly because they run away from the term as fast as possible. In the days that followed the tornado, as praise was heaped upon the guys behind the account — David Drobny, Will Minkoff and Andrew Leeper — the trio did everything they could to deflect credit to the National Weather Service, area meteorologists and almost anyone else who helps in emergency preparedness. Humility is part of their charm.
And I get their point. They’re just a group of avid weather enthusiasts — albeit ones who have won awards from the NWS — who were doing their job. But maybe, just maybe, we can agree that sometimes, like during the night of March 2 and early hours of March 3, their actions are heroic.
So thanks, @NashSevereWx, for being the best part of Twitter. You make us laugh with wry jokes and funny GIFs, but when the sky comes crashing down, we know the three of you will help us stay safe.
—Steve Cavendish
Former Editor, Nashville Scene
