Once again, Iceland shows us the fire and ice. There seems to be an awful lot of geothermal activity lately. New Zealand, Japan, and Indonesia all seem to been very active the past year or so. Does all of this mean something?
Perhaps Iceland is just having a soil-renewal event. Grimsvotn volcano errupted for the first time since 2004. The plume goes 12 miles into the atmosphere.
Man, we just got a call from back home in the Midwest. We have close relatives who live only blocks from St. Johns Hospital Center in Joplin, MO, which took a direct hit from that huge tornado. At least two members of our family have totally lost their homes. Hopefully they all survived. One of them was a teacher at Joplin High School. I hear the school was also destroyed but haven’t confirmed it yet. Two Joplin fire department buildings had their roofs ripped away, and the firemen apparently had to dig out their own people before heading to the disaster area. Because of heavy rain, it looks like the tornado was not spotted until it was right on top of them all. I-44 between Joplin and Springfield is closed because it is littered in one section with overturned cars and trucks. Reports of possibly 24 deaths in Joplin. And the weather warnings are still out from Oklahoma to Michigan.
That is horrible. Let us know if there is a fund for your relatives. We can post it. What time did this happen?
I should probably stick tornadoes in this thread.
This evening at 5:45pm CST. We got the info relayed through other relatives in Kansas City. Looks like most of the phone system has been knocked out in and around Joplin, so somebody must have had luck with a cell phone right after the tornado struck. No reports yet on whether all Mrs. W’s relatives survived; but the media is now saying that there are still people trapped in wreckage. Some are saying it is a repeat of Tuscaloosa. The pictures I’ve seen look like Hiroshima in 1945, with the skeleton of the hospital still standing amidst the flattened rubble. They apparently got the patients out of the wreckage. Some reports are that the hospital is still cooking with a possibly dangerous gas leak.
Somebody with the American Red Cross estimated for CNN that 75% of Joplin, Missouri, may be gone. That is a city of over 50,000.
http:www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2073456,00.html
This looks really bad – it has been a rough Spring – climate change or
“within norms” and we take more note because of 24-7 news coverage?
(Joplin’s population is about the size of Manassas and MP combined.)
Not sure why the link didn’t work – but the pictures are on the TIME website.
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2011/05/tornado-joplin-missouri/38020/
Why don’t we have sirens go off when there is a tornado warning?
What if it were the middle of the night? How would people be warned? After seeing Tuscaloosa and Joplin, it sounds like a worthwhile community investment.
Supposedly bad weather around noon. Hail and wind.