Amazingly we have heard more about Libya, Syria and the "wedding" than we have about this.
Violent storms hammer Alabama, Southern states
That's probably because a royal wedding for the first time in 30 years, and the events taking place in Libya and Syria are slightly hotter topics than the tornadoes that are nearly routine for certain parts of the country, despite the severity of the storms. People in New York could care less about thunderstorms and tornadoes in Alabama. Most of 'em don't even know where Alabama, or Arkansas or Tennessee is. For a most of the country, tornadoes are either a routine fact of life, or are out of their experience entirely.
The storms are largely quick and done events, while other events around the globe are ongoing. There's no need for the media to keep telling us that what happened in Alabama and other places was really, really bad. The media is bad enough as it is. It's like calling the release of Obama's long form birth certificate a
bombshell, when the only way that would have been a bombshell would be if the birth certificate proved Omama was born somewhere other than Hawaii. As it is, it's a nonshell bombshell
Breaking News that tells us the tornado damage was bad is nothing more than,
"This just in - Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead! Film at eleven." Of course, if that gets ratings, they'll do it.
Be that as it may, the storms take the lead story on every news broadcast I've seen, dominates the front pages of all of the news Web sites I've seen, and covers the front pages of all of the newspapers I've seen. So those who have heard more about Libya, Syria and the "wedding" than we have about these storms are those who have either been actively avoiding storm reporting, or seeking out those other news topics to the exclusion of all else.
Nearly 300 people were killed in six states on April 27-28 in one of the deadliest series of tornadoes to hit the United States in recent decades. But it's far the from the deadliest ever. Here is a look at the deadliest tornado days in U.S. history:
March 18, 1925: 747 people killed after tornadoes hit Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. The largest of the tornadoes, almost certainly an F5 tornado, holds records for longest path length (219 miles), longest duration (about 3.5 hours), and fastest forward speed for a significant tornado (73 mph,) anywhere on Earth.
March 21, 1932: 332 killed, most of them in Alabama, following a wave of tornadoes across the Southeast.
May 17, 1840: 317 died, nearly all of them in the city of Natchez, Miss., after tornadoes hit Louisiana and Mississippi.
April 3, 1974: 310 killed in what is known as the "Super Outbreak" when 148 tornadoes rampaged across 13 states over a 24-hour period. At one point there were 16 tornadoes on the ground at once. Six tornadoes were F5, and twenty four were F4 intensity.
May 27, 1896: 305 died when tornadoes hit Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky.
While tornadoes do occur on every continent except Antarctica, the vast majority of them occur in the United States east of the Rockies in the Spring and Summer months. The United States experiences 100,000 thunderstorms each year, resulting in more than 1,200 tornadoes and approximately 50 deaths per year. Conversely, in an average year the European continent averages 170 tornadoes, and the rest of the world has about 200 per year. Bangladesh takes top prize in the number of tornadoes in which more than 100 deaths occurred (19 tornadoes out of the 42 worldwide which killed more than 100 people),
Tornadoes are scary things, but once they're over, they're over. A tree falls on your house, you get out the chainsaw and clean it up and start repairs. A tornado destroys your house, you get an insurance adjuster out there and move on. It's all you can do. No point in dwelling on it. Once you're through dwelling, you still gotta clean it up.
