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Thanks for the Prayers, Now Where’s the Storm Relief?
Super Tuesday was also marked by a series of devastating storms that swept through the South, killing several. Josh Strawn recounts yesterday's other big news, and congratulates the politicos on their "outpouring of spiritual solidarity," but insists "material reconstruction and support" are what really matter.
While the political landscape in the South last night might have resembled a battlefield of sorts, an onslaught of major storms and tornadoes brought devastation to the region on and after Super Tuesday, transforming the actual landscape into scenes that might have been lifted from a war memoir. Powerful tornadoes swept through Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee, leaving several dead, as well as homes, college dormitories, malls, power lines, and even a natural gas pumping station damaged or destroyed. Many more were injured in an uncommon bout of severe winter weather.
The storms were triggered by a cold front that is currently pressing its way north, bracing areas in its path for storms, but none that are expected to be quite so intense. Many speculate that La Ni√±a–a cooling of the Pacific waters the opposite of El Ni√±o’s warming–is to blame, since one of its effects is known to be erratically altered weather patterns in areas far from the Pacific. Recent studies have suggested that one such alteration might be an increase in these kinds of weather disturbances in the southern U.S.
The occupants of a nursing home in Jackson TN, and those near the Columbia Gulf Transmission gas plant in Hartsville, TN were among the lucky ones, as all survived what could have been lethal incidents caused by the tornadoes, not least the spectacular explosion that came when the gas plant was struck by one of dozens of individual twisters reported.
Presidential candidates interrupted their high-energy victory speeches to express their condolences to the victims. Hillary Clinton asked her supporters to “keep the people of Arkansas and Tennessee in [their] prayers” while Huckabee emphasized that the lives of those affected by the catastrophe were more important than political victories. In addition to a pause for thoughts and prayers, Barack Obama added, “I hope our federal government will respond quickly and rapidly to make sure they get all the help they need.”
While the National Guard assisted rescue teams and monitored sites for looting, emergency response crews surveyed the damage and death tolls. Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security, announced the deployment of FEMA teams while Arkansas Senator Mark Pryor said in a statement, “I will not tolerate a slow reaction time. FEMA must not use bureaucratic excuses to avoid helping Arkansans.”
President Bush answered today on all counts, assuring the people and their states’ respective governors that assistance was on the way. “More importantly,” Bush said, he wanted the governors “to be able to tell the people in their states that the American people hold those who suffer up in prayer.” Folks in these heavily Christian states who found concrete slabs and twisted debris where their houses once stood almost certainly appreciated the outpouring of spiritual solidarity, but material reconstruction and support will as certainly be of the utmost as they attempt to repair their lives in the coming months.
Josh Strawn is a writer and musician based in New York. His band is Blacklist.
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2 Comments
1. John Dunshee:How fortunate we are to have FEMA.
Before its inception disasters would strike and the victims would lie in the streets, suffer and die. Buildings and homes would be demolished never to be rebuilt and the population was reduced to living in holes in the ground with no food until they gradually expired.
That is why there was no life in the Midwest before the 1980’s, the San Francisco area was a pile of rubble since 1906 and Chicago just a wasteland of burnt buildings.
It is only through he efforts of Federal Agencies that citizens have managed to live past infancy and at last grown to adulthood. If not for the Government we would have no food, no homes, no air to breath or water to drink. Our children, should we live long enough to have any, would grow up ignorant, dirty and rude since there would be no one to educate them or teach them hygiene and manners.
Travel is now achievable that was before impossible because of the lack of roads or subsidies to encourage people to develop means of transportation. People had to trudge entire blocks, sometimes carrying loads of several pounds.
Oh, how fortunate we are to live in a time where we have so many people volunteering to care for us, teach us, feed us, clothe us and make us wash behind our ears and eat our (organically grown) vegetables.
I only hope that their interest in us will continue past the next election.
Feb 7, 2008 - 5:05 am 2. Drugstore Cowgirl:Nothing can ever keep us down now. Except maybe a strong wind and heavy rain. But our masters are working on that too.
John Dunshee that was excellent! And so true. We’re just beginning to crawl out of our holes here in Wyoming, stand upright and even speak sometimes. Amazing! All thanks to our beloved Federal Government.
Feb 7, 2008 - 6:49 am