Tornadoes

by hilzoy

54 people are dead as a result of tornadoes in Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama. The photo above looks like my room when I was a kid, but that's a real bus on its side, and the destruction pictured above only hints at the real lives in ruins.

Here's a link to the Red Cross (h/t Atrios and Monkeyfister.) Please give if you can. Thanks.

Comments

[a]

Bush's fault, right?

[Hartmut]

No, must be G*d's punishment for something, maybe that liberal traitor McCain getting too many votes[/snark]

[Xeynon]

No, must be G*d's punishment for something, maybe that liberal traitor McCain getting too many votes[/snark]

Actually, Andrew Sullivan posted a quote from some wingnut or other under his "Malkin Awards nominee" heading that was pretty similar to this.

Let's all agree, it'd great to do what we can to assist in a situation like this.

[rea]

Bush's fault, right?

Well, it would help if the pesident would get past his belated, gruging recognition of global climactic change, and actully commit to trying to do something about it. Wouldn't stop particular tornados (in February!), but in the long run might make a difference.

[Jesurgislac]

Xeynon: Let's all agree, it'd great to do what we can to assist in a situation like this.

Bush's last budget apparently cut federal aid to disaster response...

[bartkid]

Has Rush blamed the people killed, injured, or left homeless for not driving the buses away from disaster yet?

Has the Bush administration blamed the affected state governors or mayors yet?(y'know for being Democratic, if they are.)

[femdem]

Thanks, Hilzoy. I'm starting to think of you as magnetic north for my moral compass.

[Sniderman]

F*ck that's a bad pic.

Worst storms I've tracked maybe ever. Glad you all made it through.

[hilzoy]

femdem: eep. That's a scary thought. Just don't adopt my attitude towards deadlines. :)

[Phil]

Thanks for this, hilzoy. I made a donation to ARC yesterday morning, and my company has matching funds, so I hope it does some good.

And now, my usual pitch when disasters of this magnitude occur: If you donate to the Red Cross, please consider giving to the National Disaster Relief Fund and not to the disaster-specific fund. The latter exists because, thanks to some post-9/11 fundraising confusion and backlash over it, donors have to be permitted to designate their funds to help people in a specific disaster.

But what happens, most often, is that people in the wake of a disaster hear the apppeals for help, then donate and designate, and that particular disaster gets overfunded. Since the funds cannot then be used for other purposes, the NDRF, which is generally underfunded, doesn't always have enough to meet the needs for other disasters.