Southwest Oklahoma City was just devastated by an enormous tornado. Briarwood Elementary School (I think) was ripped apart and there were kids there at the time. A lot of neighborhoods are flattened. There are a lot of people who are going to need help.
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Oh, man. There are a lot of people trapped in the rubble of their homes.
Shit, I have been following weatherdude’s updates on GOS and FB. This looks ugly.
People on Interstate 35 got tossed around.
That woman they just pulled out was impaled with debris, but she looked okay under the circumstances.
Now they are interviewing a woman who lost their house but survived by putting her family in the bathtub under a mattress.
yes, also following since yesterday. A mile wide tornado ? I grew up in tornado country, and the fact that the swathe was always somewhat limited in width could be a mitigating factor
No doubt the Oklahoma Republicans will propose holding back any federal aid unless it’s paid for with money from somewhere else. They’re very principled that way, you know.
You never know. When something hit Virginia, Eric Cantor was proposing just that.
Yeah .. the only OK GOP’er to vote for Sandy aid was Tom Cole .. who’s sister(or maybe mother) is mayor of Moore. I wonder how fast The Tan Man will want disaster relief for Oklahoma
Faster than he wanted it for the victims of Sandy.
I believe they are just that principled.
Well this (second) Moore mega-tornado likely won’t rise to the level of Sandy, but it’s plenty of destruction and will result in federal disaster declarations that will have to be paid for by the taxpayers.
Repubs held Sandy relief hostage, just as they did for aid for New England after the freak hurricane hit there. They don’t feel too much compunction to shell out aid for Blue Urban areas, while happily gulping down billions in aid for every Red State “natural” disaster (since we now live in the first decade of the new man-made climate, there are no “natural” disasters any longer, all are a result of man-made climate change.)
What I’d like to see is some method of short circuiting the Repubs’ new tactic of refusing or delaying disaster aid for urban Blue states. Perhaps this latest OK catastrophe in the Reddest State in the Union can be a vehicle for aid reform.
Since Repubs only approve of disaster aid for “their” Traditional Americans, and want to hold all aid for Godless lib’rul citizens hostage, how about demanding that Repubs fund a huge disaster aid fund right now. Say $200 billion, to be drawn on whenever the prez declares a state of emergency. A disaster checking account, to be filled whenever it’s drawn down, no waiting to see what and where the latest “natural” disaster occurs. That ends the loathsome Repubs’ hostage taking, since the funding will already be available.
I’ve had it with hapless Dems funding every Red State disaster immediately, then weakly cryin’ “Shame on you!” whenever Repubs refuse aid for the next (Blue State) disaster. Is there no thought of ever actually fighting the Repub monsters and their divisive shit?
Reports coming in that the search for the 3rd graders has been changed from rescue to recovery. 2 dozen children have become victims.
Many reporters & meterologists calling this the worst tornado in history of globe. 200+ mph and some claiming 300+ which would equal the record set in 1999. Some say 1 mile wide, some say 2 miles wide.
This toll is going to be horrendous. Empathy for the families of the innocent, anger at the global warming deniers and yes this is the time to talk about it.
So sad. Sen. Inhofe’s Oklahoma. One of the reddest states in the nation – heavily dependent on the fossil fuel industry. Quite possibly the highest rates of global warming denialists per capita in the country.
I’m very disappointed in many of the comments in this thread. You know who you are.
If you meant me – let me elaborate: I really am very sad. Heartbroken watching the pictures. And heartbroken that this stuff is going to continue and get worse and that so many of the people who are suffering aren’t going to understand the cause-and-effect.
I’m sad that politics have become so poisoned in this country that people’s first response to this tragedy is engage in schadenfreude.
Don’t think that it doesn’t cross my mind. But I have a filter. Even in perhaps the most conservative and anti-science state in the country, these are Americans. They’re humans. A lot of the victims disagree with denying emergency aid to Blue States. A lot of them voted for Obama and against their lunatic representatives.
Certainly, it’s in bad taste to draw on politics at a time like this, but I’d probably be more outraged reading comments like that if I hadn’t gone through months of reading all over the internet about how the victims of Sandy were all welfare queens demanding “handouts.”
I understand. But I don’t see Climate Change through the same political lens as the other issues – when I see suffering like this its the first thing that comes to mind because unless we address climate change effectively, and very fast, these sort of events will become increasingly more common.
MS NBC says same town was hit in 1999 by similar tornado. Pictures from the air show terrible scenes. I hope they have found all the people who are still alive before nightfall. I’ll say a prayer for the victims and the survivors tonight, and hope we get significant aid there by daybreak.
I was in tenth grade when a massive tornado struck nearby Xenia, Ohio. It was 1974 and the tornado devastated the town, killing 30+ people. It not only blew the houses away, it pulled the foundations right out of the ground.
This type of tragedy transcends politics. These people, this town will be in shock, in pain, and they will never forget the horror of this day. My heart goes out to them, and I hope we can offer aid, support, and whatever they need to get through this.
{{{{Moore, OK}}}}
;_;