Once again nature’s violent side has been unleashed on communities and rural areas, causing heart-breaking destruction and deaths in the nation’s midsection.
Fifteen persons died when tornadoes ripped through three Missouri counties on Saturday night, and more died in Oklahoma and Georgia. Several others are critically injured.
Only a year after a tornado destroyed Greensburg, Kan., families in the heartland are grieving and searching for belongings in piles of rubble — or empty lots — where their homes and businesses once stood.
A Joplin family was killed on the way to a wedding. A family of four died in their mobile home. A woman died in a car where she had taken refuge after her own vehicle broke down.
The owner of a demolished feed store near Seneca, Mo., provides inspiration with his pledge to rebuild, and others likely will follow. But Picher, Okla., likely will not fare as well as Greensburg, which is being rebuilt. The federal government already was purchasing the declining mining town of Picher lot-by-lot because of its toxic status as a Superfund site.
It is another violent spring. Being prepared for the worst is the best that anyone can do. That includes having adequate storm warning devices, including personal weather radios and reliable community warning systems.
Families should determine the best locations for shelter before storms hit, and then go to them when sirens or other alerts warn of danger. Basements and cellars are ideal but for those who don’t have them, neighbors, churches, businesses, and community centers should be welcoming.
At times it seems the natural world is cruel. Thousands are dead from an earthquake in central China on Monday. Tens of thousands are dead from a cyclone earlier this month in Myanmar, formerly Burma. Less than three years ago, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita ravaged New Orleans and the Gulf.
Closer to home, flooding from heavy rains in southern and eastern Missouri earlier this spring caused widespread damage and deaths. Tornadoes struck Gladstone and Kansas City, North in early May but thankfully spared lives.
To help, give to the American Red Cross and other disaster agencies that help those in need. And be prepared. It’s tornado season.
