"They stay out of the way," Presley said. "We talk to them on cell. They did a real good job of helping us."

As for the other group of chasers, Presley doesn't embrace them quite as much.

"Some of these other chasers are flat getting crazy," he said.

That would include stopping on the highway or pulling into muddy ditches.

"Anything you can do that is crazy in good weather, they're doing it in bad."

Complaints about the problems with storm chasers is sure to set off a firestorm of activity, just as it did nearly a year ago when Trego County Sheriff Rich Schneider complained that chasers were clogging roads, preventing emergency personnel from tracking the storm and alerting local residents.

Schneider said he heard about his comments, but they were mostly positive.

"They were better this year," he said of the chasers. "But they don't understand they're blocking the road."

For the most part, he said, the only contact he had last week with chasers was in the Voda area, in western Trego County.

"They're not so much of a problem, other than they speed through our little towns," he said.

Lies, the emergency management director in Gove County, has little use for them.

"I don't begrudge anyone trying to make a buck," Lies said, "but don't get in my way when they're doing it."

As he was heading south on Castle Rock Road, a major thoroughfare as far as county roads go in Gove County, Lies said he came upon about 15 chasers.

"Some were parked right in the middle of the road," he said.

As he turned back north and headed into Quinter at the height of a storm that produced an EF4 tornado, a series of chasers followed close behind.

One, he said, even went so far as to try and pass him.

As he reached Interstate 70, he crossed paths with another group of chasers, just as he did on the highway.

"There were storm chasers on the interstate stopped and taking pictures," he said. "We found them all over the place during this two days of storms."

The magnitude of the storm, and its timing is partly responsible for the depth of the convergence, a meteorologist and storm tracker said.

National Weather Service meteorologist Mike Umscheid said May and June are popular times for chasers and storm tour groups.

"You would not believe the number of people across the nation, or the world, who take a vacation to track tornadoes," he said.

Technology has made it easier to chase storms, he added, and it has put more people up close to the severe stuff.

"I've been chasing storms for 10 years and I don't like it," Umscheid said of the crush of people. "I try to stay away from the hordes."

Popularity of storm chasing, he said, no longer is a result of the movie "Twister."

Instead, he now credits documentaries for the surge.

That includes Wurman's chase team from the Center for Severe Weather Research, which has been featured on the Discovery Channel.

"They've got a whole armada," Umscheid said.

The crush of chasers, he said, was simply an ideal mix: location and timing.

"They're all going to blast to areas of high risk," he said.

That's what the area around Hays offered. Chasers also like storms near the interstate, because of the easy access it offers, Umscheid said.

"The unfortunate thing for Trego and Ellis County," he said, "is it's not the first time."

Umscheid said chasers argue they offer benefits, by staying in hotels and eating in local restaurants.

The other benefit, he said, comes from chasers who send up a beacon using global positioning devices that the National Weather Service can track.

Simply tracking spotters helps determine where the action is, and spotters can transmit a beacon if a tornado is spotted.

But for every beacon that is transmitted, he said, there likely are three or four more chasers in the area.

"I can see the clusters on this map," Umscheid said as he watched storms fire up last week in Nebraska. "And I can I don't want any part of that."

For Presley in Graham County, at least one chaser got stuck and didn't want to pay to get pulled out.

That person called at the height of the storm, and he remained stuck for the night.

Presley also was among those who heard about last year's problems.

"They couldn't understand why we couldn't be more accommodating," he said. "I said we're not a zoo out here."

"Tornadoes are nothing to mess with," Lies said. "If you're not careful, you're going to be part of the problem. And we don't need any more problems."