ST. LOUIS — Debris from splintered homes covered the ground in neighborhoods around St. Louis, while topped trees and overturned cars littered lawns and driveways....
Cleanup crews swung into full gear yesterday. With the din of chain saws and pounding hammers in the background, homeowners sifted through debris....
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Some got out in time:
"A “knuckle-headed corrections officer’’ is to blame for the escape of two men who apparently climbed down a homemade rope yesterday morning to flee from a St. Louis detention center, the mayor’s chief of staff said....
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Related: Weekly U.S. Weather Report
Following up on that:
"Storms’ fury took N.C. by surprise; Tornadoes left 21 dead, hundreds of homes destroyed" April 19, 2011|By Brock Vergakis, Associated Press
COLERAIN, N.C. — They aren’t used to tornadoes in North Carolina, let alone 60 of them.
When a deadly storm system that had already unleashed twisters across the South was about to arrive, residents were out doing yard work, making plans for the Easter holiday, or just gazing at the darkening skies.
Over four hours on Saturday night, they learned that a hurricane is not the only force of nature that can strike their state.
“The sky looks funny,’’ Jean Burkett recalled saying, as she looked out of her window around dinner time. Then she called out to her husband, Richard. “Honey, come here,’’ she said. “You’ve never seen this before.’’
I haven't been HAARPING on the weather manipulation lately; however, it does make you wonder. I guess they would be frying us to prove global warming if they really were.
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The conditions that created the deadly weather systems may appear once or twice a year in the tornado-prone Great Plains, but almost never in North Carolina....
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Related: 15-state tornado system deadliest string since ‘08
"N.C. storm’s human, financial toll rises" April 20, 2011|Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. — The tornado that carved through North Carolina’s capital killed four children, shuttered a university for the rest of the spring semester, and felled the signature trees in the metropolis known as the “City of Oaks.’’
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In all, the storm killed 45 people in six states, but North Carolina was by far the hardest-hit.
More than three days after the storm, crews struggled yesterday to restore electricity and infrastructure there....
Outside her apartment in downtown Raleigh, 71-year-old Elsie McKeithan wondered whether residents understood that a tornado could strike an urban area, especially with such ferocity. The storm tore the roof from the three-story apartment where she lived, rain pouring in....
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"Hard future for N.C. victims; Twisters left poor with little hope of replacing homes" April 21, 2011|By Brock Vergakis and Mitch Weiss, Associated Press
Saturday’s tornadoes in North Carolina struck one of the state’s richest counties and a few of its poorest, leaving well-to-do professionals in the capital city and poor tobacco farmers down east scrambling for their lives.
But days after the common experience, their lives again bear few similarities. Those with insurance and money are ready to rebound. And the people who were barely scraping by to begin with say they have no place to stay, no income, and no easy future....
That's AmeriKa in the 21st century.
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