A Day to Remember the Valiant
Memorial Day never really meant much to me than a holiday from work until I visited Arlington National Cemetery. At first it seemed like every other site in DC, tour buses, visitor center, souvenirs. But as I walked through the cemetery and rows and rows and acres upon acres of grave sites it got to me. All these people gave their life for this country. All had moms and dads, brothers and sisters, some with children of their own.
The sense of enormity, size, scope, some 300,000 grave sites changed my memorial days forever. Thank you to the only people truly deserving of the title Hero.
Read the article CNN/Remembering our fallen: Pfc. Leroy Sandoval
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I proudly wear the Gold Star Mother's ring that belonged to my Great-grandmother, who lost 2 sons in the war. I remember the name of every friend of mine, and those native sons I didn't know, who were lost in Vietnam. To Gold Star families everywhere, for the service and ultimate sacrifice by their loved ones, they will never be forgotten
Read the article HUFFINGTON POST/Remembrance and Thankfulness: A Memorial Day Prayer
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As we refocus on PFC Sandoval, I’m a DOD Civilian and a Retired Air Force member. I’ve been to Iraq and Afghanistan. I have seen young brave Marines, Airmen and Soldiers like PFC Sandoval. They grab their armor and go to work to fight tyranny and injustice all over the world.
They don’t ask for pity and they don’t need us to question why they had the metal make up to do that job. This is a profession that few can do. I know some knuckle head is going to say anyone can enlist. That might be true, but only the few brave ones do. God Speed PFC Sandoval, I salute you
Read the article CNN/Remembering our fallen: Pfc. Leroy Sandoval
Its a good day to bring the troops home. I am a Viet Nam era veteran and the carnage here is a lot worse then that time and the deployments are longer and much harder on them and families.
I saw the Deputy commanding General of the Army on the Washington Journal this morning and he said that 85% of the Afghan are illiterate and can't count to ten etc so it makes it difficult in training to tell them to put 3 rounds etc in the magazine. No outside force has subdued Afghanistan since Alexander the Great which was 2300 years ago, Their Government is composed of loose network of Tribal chiefs, It was also announced today that the Prime Minister of Iraq wants our remaining troops to stay beyond the deadline.
It is time to bring our troops home. There has been too much dying and maiming and family sacrifices and losses. We will need to be there forever before they are educated enough and can do things on their own.
Read the article YAHOO NEWS/Memorial Day comes as troops fight in Afghanistan
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There's a graveyard a couple of blocks away, relatively small and very old. It's decorated with both American flags and the Stars and Bars.
The American flags are on all manner of graves, old and new, but the Stars and Bars decorates only very old and very weathered headstones, really hard to read in general.
A lot of them are broken and sit in two or three pieces. But occasionally you find one that's readable, that tells a little story, however brief, about a man who fought for the Confederacy.
I don't know, I find myself drawn to those ones. I want to know who these men were, what it was like to fight against your own country. I don't revere them as one might revere a war hero but I am fascinated by them.
Read the article THE ATLANTIC/The first memorial day
Killer Tornado Devastates Joplin, Missouri
I am astounded at the number of comments that I read asking why people live in the plains, or why they weren't amply warned. The plains are N America's lungs, where various winds commingle - they can be annoying at times, but the air is clear (every newbie from China I meet here is quick to comment on that). You don't have brown clouds sitting over your community.
Tornado season usually lasts 6-8 weeks; there are countless warnings over the yrs, but very few can say they've actually encountered one (which is why people can be so cavalier about the warnings). Warnings are just that: an assessment of risk. Joplin was hit by a roll of the dice, not punished by God or for willful ignorance of science, or for being conservative. Tornadoes aren't hurricanes, taking a path that you can monitor; they drop from the clouds, destroy, and lift to the heavens, often within minutes.
The plains states are saturated w/state of the art radars, and meteorologists dominate the air waves in season. Yet, science can only assess risk, not predict a tornado. I happen to agree w/the climatologist on ABC last night - this intense outbreak is more attributable to La Nina than to God or Global Warming. Global Warming is a long range predictive, which is why people that accept the science of a radar image cannot wrap their heads around it.
Read the article HUFFINGTON POST/Joplin, Missouri Tornado Single Deadliest In U.S. Since 1950
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Thanks to the neighbor on 26th & Picher who pulled our 96-year old grandmother to safety. God Bless you and all who are helping in any way.
I'm a Joplin native who remembers the Joplin tornadoes from '71. In Springfield we are stunned by the devastation and photographs we are seeing. We are thankful our family seems to be accounted for, but sending prayers for those still seeking, still missing and others already grieving.
Read the article THE JOPLIN GLOBE/Storm descends on Joplin
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I live in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and we just had a devastating tornado almost exactly a month ago. Trust me when I say that it is truly life changing when this happens.
Right now people in Missouri need medical attention, supplies, manual labor, and compassion. Don't judge people whose homes and businesses are destroyed and who have been injured or have lost their lives. When these things happen there is nothing you can do except hope for the best.
Don't blame people for living in a place where there are tornadoes, or hurricanes, or floods. The places that don't have these usually have volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, wildfires, drought, landslides. There is also urban pollution, disease, and violence. Nowhere is completely safe to live in. Wherever people live, they just have to take their chances and hope that they will be OK.
Read the article CNN IReport/Stories from the storm
I don't want to come over as sounding insensitive; my thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Joplin, but why are people shocked this kind of weather happens?
I live in the Midwest and tornadoes are just a part of life. The town I live in is 25,000+ and two years ago and F3 tornado touched down about 7 miles outside of town. Didn't even make the news. Had that tornado moved north by 7 miles and it would have been splashed all over the evening news.
This year is an active year, one of the busiest, but this country has seen worse. This weather is to be expected. The US population is increasing and thus people are forced to develope housing and businesses in severe weather prone areas. When that happens you get what has been happening lately. Tornadoes aren't stronger or necessarily more numerous, its just with the population continuing to increase, it seems like they are stronger or more numerous
Read the article CNN/89 dead after tornado in Joplin, MO
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I am convinced of the reality of climate change. The evidence seems pretty
incontrovertible to me. I'm still doubtful about how much of what we are seeing
has been caused by human actions but that's another issue.
But tornadoes have
nothing to do with climate change at all and no reputable researchers in the
field does or would claim that they are connected when all the evidence says
they aren't. Some years are worse than average for tornadoes than others. Some
are better. Next year may see the lowest level of tornadoes for decades.
No one
knows as it's entirely unpredictable. Classic chaos theory. The bottom line is
that tornadoes are no more caused by climate change than by a vengeful God.
Read the article ABC NEWS/Tornadoes rip across Midwest
Flood Watch as Mississippi Rolls Along Relentlessly
It took decades and hundreds of millions of dollars to build the system of levies and spillways along the Mississippi and its tributaries. If the Morganza and the levees didn't exist there's a better than even chance that all those folks in and along the floodway would already be inundated. It's also possible that the Mississippi would have changed its course.
Take a look at a satellite picture of the river at Morganza and you'll see a huge curve in the river. Left alone the waters could easily flow down the Atchafalaya and never return to its present course. Regardless, all that work and money went into a flood protection system that's worked well for over half a century.
Now that we need it, all the criticism seems counterproductive. It's not a matter of choice. It's a matter of saving a system, untold lives, and millions of acres of property that could be underwater again (as in 1927) if we don't use the resources we have in place
Read the article
CNN/Louisiana residents rush to protect homes, escape from looming floods
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The levees and controls on the Mississippi River are NOT just about towns and residential areas.
If you get rid of the levees then the Mississippi River will shift westward into the Atchafalaya, which cannot handle the large oil tankers and cargo ships mentioned in the article.
With all of the concern over how a "slow down" in shipping will affect the price of goods in the U.S., just think about how they would be affected by a permanent disruption.
And yes, they can dredge and alter the Atchafalaya to handle the shipping. But isn't "man-made alteration" what you are seeking to end? And why destroy the Mississippi River levees only to spend as much or MORE to artificially alter the Atchafalaya to take its place?
Read the article HUFFINGTON POST/Mississippi River Floods 2011: Coast Guard Reopens Part Of Swollen River
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While I realize the toll it takes on exporters and others to slow barge traffic on the river, people need to keep in mind that if the main Mississippi River levee breaks, there could be a disaster more catastrophic than most can imagine. Considering how much water there is in the Mississippi River right now, how quickly the water is flowing, and how powerful that water is under normal circumstances, any breach in the levee would likely widen and tons and tons of water would pour into the Mississippi Delta area.
This could and would inundate towns, farms, homes, etc in a relatively short period of time, no doubt causing loss of life as well as property. Breaches in the main Mississippi River levee are what caused the catastrophic flood of 1927, which killed hundreds of people. Here is a description of that flood:
The nation's most destructive flood began with heavy rains in the summer of 1926 and through the spring of 1927. The Mississippi River broke through levees in seven states, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee.
The worst break, however, occurred on April 21, 1927, at the ferry crossing of Mounds Landing in Bolivar County, about 15 miles north of Greenville.
"Sand boils began percolating inside the levee structures," Millette said.
According to "American Experience" on Public Broadcasting System, one worker recalled, "It was just boiling up. The levee just started shaking. You could feel it shaking."
When the levee broke, many of the workers were swept away in a torrent of water that flooded an area 50 miles wide and 100 miles long with up to 20 feet of water. Water was over the tops of homes 75 miles away.
from blog.gulflive.com/mississippi-press-news.
This agrees with accounts of the flood on many other sites. One source estimated he cost of the flood at 1 billion dollars in 1927 dollars. I don't think we want that type of disaster on our hands again.
Please note that a new levee system was built after this flood and that the Mississippi Delta area, meaning the fan-shaped alluvial floodplain in northwest Mississippi that has some of the most fertile land in the world, has NOT been prone to flooding since that time other than another flood in 1937 which appears to have been mostly due to tributaries of the river backing up and flooding.
Every article that I could find refers to water levels reached during the 1937 flood rather than levees being breached. There is much reference to a disastrous 1993 flood, which caused very significant damage and death; but, as horrible as it was, it did not occur in the Mississippi Delta.
The current flood is matching or breaking the levels reached in BOTH the 1927 and the 1937 floods (projected levels in the cases of levee breaches in 1927). I include that info for people who seem to want to comment that those who choose to live in a floodplain somehow "deserve" to be afflicted by disaster.
People live in the Mississippi Delta because of its rich farmland. It covers an area of approx 7000 square miles which could potentially be completely flooded by the river at a time like this. Articles about the 1927 flood reported that the river was 50 to 80 miles wide at Vicksburg, MS after the levees were breached.
If we "just let the river flood" or "let it go back to its natural state," then we would have to evacuate that entire tremendous area of land because no one could possibly get insurance living in a known flood area like that-plus all of you would SERIOUSLY condemn them for their stupidity in living there! Whole cities and towns would be abandoned.
Also, the land would be useless for farming because the floods don't come in any predictable schedule like they might with a "dry season" and a "wet season" as exists in parts of Africa and elsewhere. They come when they come, and even standing water will destroy a crop-even soggy ground will prevent planting or harvesting because heavy equipment is used for both. Some of the ground is "sandy soil" and some has a mixture of brown clay in it, at least where I grew up in the Mississippi Delta. And by the way, my dad was a farmer.
Read the article MSNBC/Flooding slows shipping on Mississippi
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It's a very complicated situation. They have succeeded in preventing the flooding of two major metropolitan areas ... at the expense of flooding thousands of square miles of rural human habitat. If you live in this rural habitat or depend on it for a living, this is not a success. But, on balance, the urban habitat is much more densely packed with structures that will have to be rebuilt and, from the perspective of having to fund this rebuilding, this operation is a success.
The agricultural impact has to be evaluated over different time scales: over the short teim, this decision is catastrophic; over the long term, it will depend on what is and what is not in the water. Historically, floodwaters played a crucial role in recharging bottomland habitat with soil and nutrients ... and, over the long term, floods can have a beneficial effect on agriculture. That may no longer be the case as these floodwaters range from relatively clean to borderline toxic. I have read that some portions of New Orleans are still considered unsuitable for growing food ... due to the heavy levels of pollution during Hurricane Katrina.
The bottom line, though, is that the floodwaters had to go somewhere and somebody had to make a decision.
Read the article HUFFINGTON POST/Mississippi Flooding Live Updates
Endeavour Reaches for the Stars One Last Time
I will never forget the first space shuttle taking off, many of us stopped work for a brief moment to get a glimpse of this part of American Pride flying into the cosmos.
The cheers went up as our voices rang out for a land that fulfilled the promises our forefathers vision gave us. Now it seems the vision has been tainted, and distorted as our eyes have turned away from the promise so many have worked for.
Our astronauts will become hitch hikers begging others for a ride to the space station that these great machines helped put together. Once I built a railroad now it's done, buddy can you spare a dime.
Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/ Endeavour lifts off in its final flight
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It's always interesting to know the Endeavour was named after British Capt James Cook's the ship HMS Endeavour, which he used in his voyage of discovery thus accounting for the u in Endeavour.
Read the article CTV/Endeavour blasts off for next-to-last shuttle mission
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I find myself celebrating and feeling overwhelmed with gratitude and joy when I think of the progress and heroicism of Gabby Giffords. And now, there she is watching her husband on a mission to make the best use of technology in the pursuit of progress, discovery and the best lives for all of us. Although his mission ends soon, her very similar mission will last a lifetime.
Read the article CTV/Endeavour blasts off for next-to-last shuttle mission
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The end of the shuttle missions is kind of bittersweet for me. My dad worked for
the company that built the shuttle and the Apollo craft. I remember his
excitement on the day the first shuttle Columbia landed on a dime after its
first flight. Beautiful.
The company took a lot of heat because of delays and
NASA wasn't too happy about it. I remember the family night when we got to see
Apollo 11 when it was brought back from its mission to the moon. To know that a
member of my family had a part in the space program is a matter of pride. And
I'm here to brag about it.
Read the article ABC NEWS/Space Shuttle Endeavour, Commanded by Gabrielle Giffords' Husband, Mark Kelly,
on Final Flight
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There were no Shuttle missions scrapped. There was actually one extra flight added. At the end of this mission, the ISS assembly phase will be complete and the station will enter the utilizationn phase.
The ISS will no longer need regular deliveries of large station modules and dedicated crews trained to install them. Shuttle is being cancelled not only because of its safety and cost problems but simply because its mission is complete.
Next on the ISS side will be the CRS cargo spacecraft (SpaceX Dragon and Orbital Cygnus) and the CCT crew spacecraft (SpaceX Dragon, Boeing CST-100, and/or SNC Dream Chaser).
Next on the exploration side is a bit murkier. Congress has demanded that NASA build a very large rocket based on Shuttle hardware called the SLS (Space Launch System or Senate Launch System depending on who you ask). But nobody really knows what the mission will be. The plans to land on the moon were cancelled and replaced by plans to rendezvous with an asteroid, but now the tea leaves are vacillating back toward maybe a lunar mission.
Or maybe not. But either way, we're getting a really big rocket that could lift lots of stuff if we bother to leave enough room in the budget to build such stuff to go on the rocket. Often times, Congress is more concerned with funding a rocket that will never fly than funding a sustainable exploration program.
Read the article HUFFINGTON POST/Space shuttle Endeavour launch
Saving Cairo - The Missouri Levee Blast
For some reason, memories have been short. My father grew up on the Mississippi River, and he understood that vast areas of farmland were designated floodway.
If you buy farmland that the government paid to use as floodway years ago, it is discounted by that easement or other government designation on its title. Just because you hedged your bets and won all these years does not mean that you have the right to demand to keep doing that forever.
When the rains come down and the floods come up, it is time to move out and accept what that money and discounted land is all about. It is about saving the rest of the area by flooding the land designated as a floodway, land you have been using under the KNOWLEDGE that it is a designated floodway all these years.
While I understand the emotions anyone feels (I have been through flooding all around my home area in 2010, and I have several family members who are losing their homes to flooding for the first time this week), this particular situation was really not an issue. At least it should not have been an issue.
The deal was made years ago, the contract was made, and all that was left was for everyone to follow through and comply with their commitments.
Read the article GUARDIAN/US army blasts holes in Missouri levee to save town from flooding destruction
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A couple of points to consider:
1) Those farmers knew this was a possibility, they chose to plant on land that was on the floodplain and could be purposely flooded if a situation like this should arise.
2)This isn't just to save Cairo, this is to help ease pressure on levees downriver as well. I can tell you that here in West TN we could use the help. Our fertile farmland is being flooded already.
3) People live in Cairo, it's their home. I know there's not much left and I always roll my eyes when my grandad tells me about coming in from Mound City to the big city in Cairo and how great it was, but it's still a place that many call home and don't want to see washed away.
Nobody wants to see their land flooded, and this is not an ideal situation no matter what happens, but its going to happen whether they like it or not. This is what happens when you mess with the Mississippi, unfortunately.
Read the article CNN/Engineers will blow up Missouri levee, official says
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There's a reason the whole area around Cairo is called "Little Egypt." The name came in part from the Mississippi's periodic (i.e., annual) flooding of surrounding farmlands–much as the Nile floods and fertilizes the Egyptian fields on its banks.
But we didn't learn to accept the river's patterns and live with its fluctuations–instead we built dams and levees, so we could live on that same fertile land. It's too late to change, but it's a hard fact to face–you can't control a river.
Read the article CNN/Engineers will blow up Missouri levee, official says
Cairo, Illinois certainly is run down and neglected, as any quick image search will tell you, but it is also worth saving.
What it seems to need is a publicity drive to fund the refurbishment of its many colonial-era buildings. If this was done in conjunction with a campaign to promote its historic past, then people would be drawn to holiday there. The confluence of two great rivers, the history of steamboat travel and the drama of this let-off would all combine to make a story worth telling, just the thing for the wide-eyed tourist.
As for the farmers, the silt will do wonders for land fertility next year. All they lose is this year's crop, which may even recover if the floods abate soon
Read the article GUARDIAN/US army blasts holes in Missouri levee to save town from flooding destruction
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If history is a guide, nothing will remain the same in this part of Missouri following the flood. The last time the Corps of Engineers 'activated' the spillway--the spring of 1937--it displaced over 15,000 people, most of whom were poor tenant farmers and sharecroppers, many of them African American.
Those people used their experience in the displaced persons camps set up by the Red Cross to mount a protest movement that argued if the federal government could destroy their lives with dynamite, then it could also help them rebuild by addressing their pitiful living and health conditions, made unbearable by a decade of economic depression and deleterious government policy, like the AAA.
Their movement, mainly through the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union, resulted in the dramatic 1939 roadside demonstration in southeast Missouri and ultimately forced the federal government to build rural public housing and start a government-backed universal health service in the area that was meant to be a model for a national health service.
The 1937 spillway flood also, however, sped up the restructuring of the local agricultural economy away from tenant farming and toward mechanized plantations worked by small numbers of casual wage workers.
By the mid-1940s, the people who had worked the lands in the spillway were mostly gone. Although impossible to predict, the effects of the 2011 flood will likely be as dramatic. If their voting record is anything to judge by, the people of the Bootheel don't pride themselves on looking for government help, so it will be interesting to see what demands they make in the coming weeks, and on whom.
Somehow I don't think we'll get universal health care out of it, as they did following the 1937 flood.
Read the article GUARDIAN/US army blasts holes in Missouri levee to save town from flooding destruction
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Cairo is basically a boarded up ghost town that once had 15k people and now has
2k. Of the 2k left, over 1/3 are unemployed and live below the poverty line. To
devastate 130k acres of prime farm land and 100+ farms and homes to save a ghost
town that should be moved away from the river anyways defies logic.
There is
nothing in Cairo that's worth saving if you've ever driven through that town.
It's a dump. To ruin a billion $$$'s worth of land for a town I wouldn't give
you a pack of cigarettes for is just plain stupid. Who makes these decisions?
Read the article USA TODAY/Levee blasted along Mississippi River to spare Cairo, Ill.
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Do your research people. It is a sad situation for those Missouri farms being
flooded. Even more farms are being lost in Southern Illinois, up-stream
Missouri, Ky., and Tennessee.
Blowing the levee at Bird's point will save more
than just a "dying town of Cairo, Illinois." In fact Cairo's levees would
probably hold without blowing the Bird's Point levee.
They held in 1937 while
Paducah and Cape Girardeau were wiped out. This Bird's Point flood plain was
established 50 or more years ago to be used to avoid a repeat of 1937.
The
farmers were given the land to use with the understanding they could farm it all
they want, but that the levee would be blown it the river stage at Cairo reaches
60 feet or more. End of story. It's very sad for everyone. Pray.
Read the article USA TODAY/Levee blasted along Mississippi River to spare Cairo, Ill.
The Terrible Tragedy in the South
Tuscaloosa is my wife's home town. Her dad was a Sociology professor there and she grew up on campus. We fell in love and married there (our first "date" was at the Wendy's on 15th Street), and the University area was our home.
Last night, we watched the footage of the massive tornado in rapt horror. It was plowing through our neighborhood and nearby neighborhoods, where friends still live and work.
As of now, most of our friends and their immediate families are accounted for. Worst hit was a friend's mom's house, which is simply no longer there. Fortunately, she was in Atlanta at the time. Some friends of friends were among those who took shelter in the cooler at Blue Moon and survived the total destruction of that restaurant.
We still haven't heard from everyone, but hold out hope that all our friends are unhurt. But our hearts are broken at the destruction of this beautiful college town and campus community, and we want to offer condolences to those who lost loved ones and to those who lost their wordily possessions.
Read the article HUFFINGTON POST/Severe storm rips through the south killing at least 200
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I posted this on another thread yesterday. I think it is just as appropriate today from some of the posts I've been reading.
“I was in Arkansas 2 years ago when a tornado went through the town. The next morning I saw people in overalls putting plywood on roofs to prevent further damage. I saw women in skirts handing out sandwiches and tea. I heard on the radio station that anyone who couldn't afford the plywood to do temporary patches on their homes to come and get the plywood. Credit arrangements would be made -- for everyone. The building repair store was selling the plywood at cost. Red Cross showed up Sunday, FEMA later in the week.
Nature doesn't care what your political affliliation is. A tornado can't be stopped by the Army Corps of Engineers, more "red" or "blue" money or by throwing a bible at it.
So for those more interested in making snide comments, or throwing political arrows than showing compassion, I hope you never experience what those people are going through. I hope you never watch everything you have ever worked for literally blow away.”
Read the article HUFFINGTON POST/Severe storm rips through the south killing at least 200
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I really don't understand the political slanted posts on here. I guess it shows the ignorance and inhumanity of those making such comments on here. I hope that those who are reducing this tragic event to a few political jabs don't have to go through something like this themselves.
And if they do find themselves in a similar situation that they find compassion and learn from their ignorance.
I live just a few miles away from Vilonia, AR and work as a contractor on Little Rock AFB so I've witnessed first hand what these storms can do and the devastationn they inflict.
In other words I am speaking from first hand experience and not once have I thought of this as some political issue or that the poor people who had their homes and lives torn apart as somehow deserving what they got. That is a sick way to think of this tragedy. My thoughts and prayers to the people affected by this storm.
Read the article HUFFINGTON POST/Severe storm rips through the south killing at least 200
Hopefully there will be a lesson out of these terrible events; namely, reinforced concrete structures being built where people can get to them. I'm a native Kansan and grew up in a house without a basement. Our nearest neighbors were about a quarter of a mile away. After a few years of frequent and violent tornadoes, my father decided to build a relatively inexpensive concrete structure, rather than be put in the position of outrunning the storms to get to shelter.
No tornado just pops up. The conditions that create them are forecast as much as a few days ahead of time. When conditions are such that tornadoes are likely, a person needs to have a plan and to be ready to execute that plan at a moment's notice.
I have deep sympathy for those who did not have shelter, whose topography is such that a basement isn't a possibility, and who cannot afford to construct the type of shelter required to withstand the destructive force of storms such as these.
That said, these municipalities should look into building such structures, centrally located for maximum effect. I've lived in the deep south, and know the 'construction standards.' Most of central Mississippi and western Alabama is replete with domiciles that don't stand a chance against storms like this.
With the upbringing I had, I watch these things closely, always on guard. I hate to tell the people of the south, but this might continue for years to come. The anecdotal evidence (I'm NOT a meteorologist, this is speculation on my part, but I'd like to know what qualified scientists think) suggests that tornado alley might be shifting.
Twenty years ago, this would be pretty common in central Kansas. For the last five, these outbreaks have reached their strongest point well east of where we might expect them. So, remember your Boy Scout stuff here, please. Be prepared. It can save your life.
If I were in Mississippi, I would demand concrete structures that can hold up to the population of my town. It would take about 10 days at most and cost less than any tax abatement an automobile or pharmaceutical company receives.
Read the article YAHOO NEWS/Tornadoes devastate the south. kill 248
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It is truly sad to see some of these comments. As I have grown older, I have realized that people are people no matter where you go. Some of you think you are better than us southerners, and that is a shame. There are good and bad people everywhere, no matter where you live and we are all on this Earth together. Can you not have empathy for your fellow man?
We do not all have meth labs, we do not all live in trailers, some do and that DOES NOT make them trailer trash just because they do! We do not commit incest. Most of us are good, hard working people and it is a shame that you cannot make heartfelt comments.
Last night was terrifying, my 7 year old was visible shaking. The noise and wind was terrible. We stayed in the basement until early morning, it was the most frightened I have ever been from a tornado, the sirens kept going off.
My family and house are safe, but there are so many others who weren't that lucky. My friend has lost everything and my parents church is completely gone. The worse part is the lives lost. My heart is breaking for all of the families who lost someone.
At a time like this, you should be mature enough to drop the Obama comments and Teabag comments as well. Some of you need to grow up!
Read the article YAHOO NEWS/Tornadoes devastate the south. kill 248
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If this sort of violent weather becomes the new "normal" we will have to go back and re-evaluate the building codes in the Southern areas where tornadoes are likely.
In places like Oklahoma, most newer homes are built with a storm cellar, and those that aren't usually have a concrete reinforced room/closet where you can go to. In the South (and I know because I have lived in Southern states) many places have no storm cellar, some not even a basement, and with tornadoes this big, you are lucky if you survive a direct hit while huddled in your bathroom or closet.
I think that is why the death toll is so high-- many people-- even if they tried to, could not survive a direct hit from tornadoes this huge if they were not well underground.
My deepest condolences to the good people who have suffered.
Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/Tornado ravages Alabama city, storm toll grows
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I read the comments to this story and was a little disheartened. I have a great deal of sympathy for the people who were affected by this horrible disaster.
We need to remember that a great number of people who have nothing to do with the dysfunction in our political dialogue, including children, are being touched by this. We need to give our love and support to our fellow Americans in this horrible time; arguments to the contrary are cruel, unjust, and frankly idiotic.
That said, I don't think it is wrong to ask how a natural disaster like this informs our political conversation. First, it reminds us that disasters (natural and otherwise) are a fact of national life.
They can strike innocent victims who find themselves in need of help without any responsibility or personal fault. It is our moral and national imperative to help these people.
However, as we recognize the need to provide sympathy and support to the victims of this tragedy, we need also to reaffirm our support of a national system with the vision and the ability to provide help for others in need.
That said, I can understand the feelings of those commentators saying that the retrograde and mean spirited politics of Republicans (whose power is, let's face it, centralized in the South) are reaping what they have sown.
However, I think the proper response is not a wag of the fingers, but rather an embrace. If we are serious about changing minds about the role of a compassionate and supportive government, this should be an opportunity to show the best of what we, as a people, can be. Sustained, effective and generous aid will be a hundred times more convincing than the most potent "I told you so"
Second, I think we can apply a lesson to our national discussion about climate change. Is this tragedy definitive evidence of the parade of horrible presented by environmental activist? No, not really. Does it serve as a potent reminder that we need to be serious about the potential implications of our CO2 output? I hope so.
In any case, the best argument or the righteousness of either side of the political spectrum can be made right here: http://www.redcross.org/.
Read the articleNEW YORK TIMES/Tornado ravages Alabama city, storm toll grows
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