Deadly storms strike US south

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Source: Al Jazeera

At least 17 people have been killed in a string of deadly storms across the US south in what has become on of the nation's deadliest storm seasons.

Authorities on Saturday said that seven people had been killed in the US state of Alabama, another seven in Arkansas, two in Oklahoma and one in Mississippi.

Of the seven killed in Arkansas on Friday, three were children, while the two in Oklahoma, killed late on Thursday, were elderly sisters, authorities said.

Six of the seven fatalities in Arkansas were caused when uprooted trees smashed into houses, John Robinson, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said.

Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/04/20114161693180264.html

[MineralMan]

1. Nature doesn't play any favorites or have any particular

association with humanity. It just is. Yet another reason to be an atheist.

[DCKit]

2. Not if you can afford a steel-reinforced cement house.

Or a house with a serious basement or safe-room.

You don't find much of that with "regular" folk.

[MineralMan]

3. Yes, it's possible to shield oneself from some things.

But Nature will beat you in the end. And it can happen anytime, whoever you might be or how rich you might be. Nature always wins that battle.

[ixion]

4. Yep. Spot on.

[Iliyah]

5. My prayers

go out to them.

I wonder what Rev. Pat Robertson have to say about this, y'know, how usually its the act of his God.

[MineralMan]

8. I don't pray, but I'm sure sorry people lost their lives.

I don't think prayer is all that efficacious in preventing such incidents, though. I've never seen any evidence of it, and there sure have been a bunch of churches blown down by tornadoes, along with church-goers. Religion is irrelevant to nature.

[KoKo]

23. Thank You...Many of DU'ers posters live in NC...and remember NC went for Obama

defying other Southern States. But, to make this some kind of "Righteous Retribution of Nature" as "MM" did seems to demean the suffering of those in the Southeast from the Tornadoes.

Thank you for having some compassion that's lacking, it seems, from other fellow DU'ers who have posted here. :hug: :you rock:

[DCKit]

6. Then why do we never hear "Millionaire and Family Wiped Out in Tornado Disaster"?

They're like cockroaches these days. Surely one or another would find themselves in the path of a tornado.

[MineralMan]

7. I'm not just talking about tornadoes. There are many ways

Nature takes control and destroys humans. Think about it. Look up Jim Henson, for example. Or any of many others who have suddenly died before their old age.

[ixion]

11. Uh, every year multi-million dollar homes are wiped out in CA wildfires...

and those yachts that got destroyed in the tsunami weren't owned by peasants.

Money means nothing to nature. It is a force ultimately beyond our control.

[RebelOne]

12. Yeah, I'm a "regular" folk

who lives in a mobile home. Have no basement or safe room, TV people say that if a tornado is approaching to get into a basement or bathroom. Don't have a basement and certainly wouldn't be safe in the bathroom. So I would just have to cross my fingers and toes and ride it out. I am in Georgia in an area called Tornado Alley. There have been many close calls here in my neighborhood, but so far so direct hits where I am. But eventually, it will happen. I am surrounded by huge trees and one tornado or flat line winds and my house and me will be toast.

[dixiegrrrrl]

17. My mobile home had 9 trees on it from straight line winds during a hurricane.

Fortunately, I had left, stayed with friends in a nearby town.

I can relate to your situation very well.

Last night we had 3 tornado strikes wayyy too close to the area where I now live.

[uppityperson]

18. Scariest time in tornado as an adult was visiting a place with no basements or safe rooms

Watching funnel clouds and swirly green yellow clouds and considering which ditch would be safest, or if any of the stick built structures had a crawl space while being strong enough to feel safe under. The bathtub in the mobile we were staying at looked the best, but would only fit 1 of the 4 of us. Bathtubs are good if you can get down into them.

[KoKo]

24. And many folks in the Southeast don't have basements (no need for them) and live

in either one level ranch homes or in mobile homes. There's not places to "escape" for the poor or even the Middle Class without "Safe Spaces." We don't have a history of Tornadoes here in the Southeast...so...we haven't been prepared. And, these days there's no money to dig a basement or build a "bunker" to keep away from Global Warming Storms or "Events" of unknown origin.

And...so many are poor they live in Mobile Homes...and those places are where "Disaster" seems to strike first. The Poor...and now the Middle Class who have homes...but no need before of basements.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Nostradammit]

14. Yeah, what has nature ever done for us?

Never given us anything to eat, nor anything to drink, nor light nor warmth.

Fuck nature.

:crazy:

[HankyDubs]

9. not one penny

of federal disaster relief. It's time for people to live with the consequences of their votes.

[Posteritatis]

13. Because the entire population of each state are Republicans, right? (nt)

[Tesha]

19. Enough of them are, yes!

Every biennium, these folks send Republicans to govern us.

And every biennium, DUers explain to us how these places
aren't really Republican.

Bullshit!

Let them live with the consequences of what they vote for!

Tesha

[dixiegrrrrl]

15. Because Democrats in the South are a minority, they deserve NO help during disasters????

Didn't expect to hear thinking like that on DU.
Ok, thinking like that from a real Dem, let me say.


So none of the 813,479 people in Alabama who voted for Obama should not get help
if their community is destroyed by a disaster?

[HankyDubs]

21. well the previous response was deleted

in record time. Dunno why, maybe because I mentioned a word that starts with "S" and rhymes with recession.

I'll say it again so it won't be deleted. I know there are plenty of good people in the south and even some smart ones. I know its completely inhuman and ridiculously impractical to start denying federal aid based on how a state or county votes. I know it.

But there is a side of me that would dearly like to give the republican majorities of these states EXACTLY what they want. Let them whine about duhr gubburmint and then fend for themselves the next time a hurricane/oil spill/tornado/flood occurs. It's very tempting. The same thing goes for midwesterners and farm subsidies.

As for there being some sort of unfairness based on taxation, that argument is bunk, since I don't get to choose where my tax dollars go. The argument against the "not one penny" idea that wins is that it's inhuman to just stand by and watch people suffer when something can be done.

[WatsonT]

16. For that to be even remotely fair

A) an overwhelming majority would have had to vote one way and B) they shouldn't have taxes collected on them to cover such federal expenses.

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[KoKo]

22. K&R....I was here through it... It was awful.. I would hope to hear sympathy from DU'ers and not

Political Statements about what you all are going on about.

Lives have been lost here in NC...and devastation still isn't all known. Please have some sympathy for those of us who live here instead of this snark and posturing.

Regretfully to chastise you all...but, you deserve it!

KoKo...North Carolina

[HankyDubs]

26. chastising is fine

I'm good with it. You're upset and I understand why.

...but NOW is exactly the right time to make this point. Right now federal agencies are gearing up to provide help to the people of the south. After the mess is cleaned up and the bodies are buried, it will be all too easy for people to forget. When the next election rolls around, the same people in need of help today will line up behind candidates who inflame them with rhetoric about intrusive federal government.

Almost every year one of these disasters occurs in the south. Hurricanes along the coast, spills in the gulf, floods along the Mississippi. People die in nearly every one of them. And almost every year the federal government is called upon to rebuild these communities.

I remember other southerners saying that we should not rebuild New Orleans, speaking resentfully about the people who were displaced. I haven't forgotten their callousness. Now the shoe is on the other foot.

Now is the time to point out that we are all part of a larger society and we depend on each other when times are tough. We offer platitudes and prayers, but there is a very real lesson here.

Failure to learn this lesson has consequences. One day (seems to me this day is rapidly approaching) there will be such a disaster and the government will be too "small" and "limited" to rebuild these communities and make the people whole. I'd like for the people of the southern US to learn this lesson before that day arrives.

[KoKo]

25. Kick for the many North Carolina Posters without power tonight..after all of this...

We all need (((Good Vibes))) and Prayers or whatever good thoughts you send our way.

I'm sad to see this post had to come from Al Jazeera. But, then, as Hillary Clinton said: (praphrase: They report news.)