At 8:23 p.m., Dec. 10, Larry Virden was at the Edwardsville facility, the now-destroyed Amazon warehouse in southern Illinois. He texted Cherie Jones, saying “Amazon won’t let me leave until after the storm blows over.” The tornado touched down 16 minutes later, at 8:39. The arithmetic is maddening. It does appear that Virden could have gotten home had he left at that time. But it doesn't appear that management was being unreasonable. They did not know precisely when or whether a tornado was going to hit their facility. But they knew the danger was high, and that if it happened it would happen soon. So they made the (reasonable) determination that their employees had a better chance of sheltering where they were than by taking to the roads. RIP Larry Virden.