Weather coverage

Photo from Alabama, from Huffington Post

I was getting a little perturbed this morning by the coverage of recent weather. The storm that blew through Joplin, MO was called the "single deadliest storm in US history." I wondered, "whatever happened to the events in Alabama and other southern states in late April?" I also tried to keep in mind that coverage in the early days after such an event can sometimes tend toward the hyperbolic. On the surface it smacked of racism and disregard of the poor or of the South. I was wrong.

Alabama experienced a series of tornadoes. There were 312 reported, with 226 of those taking place in a single 24-hour period. The storm in Joplin was a single twister. The death toll in the Southern storms was 337 in 7 states. (That's second only to a weather disaster in 1925 when 747 people died.) There are reports of more than 100 deaths from the storm in Joplin.

Reporting of news sometimes worries me. Coverage of abducted white children getting more airtime than those of black kids; news from the 'burbs taking precedence over events downtown.

But in this case, I think I have to climb down off my high horse. And I'll be praying hard for those affected, and those involved in rescue and restoration.

Photo from Joplin, MO, from MSNBC.com