Even rescuers hobbled by worst twisters since 1932

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By JAY REEVES and GREG BLUESTEIN

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) - Southerners found their emergency safety net shredded Friday as they tried to emerge from the nation's deadliest tornado disaster since the Great Depression.

Emergency buildings are wiped out. Bodies are stored in refrigerated trucks. Authorities are begging for such basics as flashlights. In one neighborhood, the storms even left firefighters to work without a truck.

The death toll from Wednesday's storms reached 319 across seven states, including 228 in Alabama, making it the deadliest U.S. tornado outbreak since March 1932, when another Alabama storm killed 332 people. Tornadoes that swept across the South and Midwest in April 1974 left 315 people dead.

Hundreds if not thousands of people were injured - 900 in Tuscaloosa alone - and as many as 1 million Alabama homes and businesses remained without power.

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20110429/D9MTJGN00.html

---

Brad Kidd, left, and Chris Womack stare at what is left of their two mobile homes Friday morning, April 29, 2011, while cleaning up from a fatal tornado that struck DeKalb County, Ala., on Wednesday. DeKalb County incorporates a portion of the 25-mile long path that the twister took. (AP Photo/Chattanooga Times Free Press, Dan Henry) MANDATORY CREDIT

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Looters are out, it says.

THAT is so outrageous. Stealing jewelry and guns is not the same as taking food from a grocery store in a disaster.

[TrogL]

2. I've worked security at a tornado site

Chased off a looter driving a Mercedes

[admonish]

5. contrast with japan's disaster

I believe the reason for the contrast with japan is both the lack of solidarity within the "new world" vs. the more cohesive and historic "tribal" bond of the "old world" as well as the competitive nature of the US and lack of success for most of the population. The fact success is often defined by consumerism and not as much by traditional family/social goal posts is driven by lack of solidarity of the "melting pot" which is the US. I suspect the future will only exasperate this mentality as both wages and the social net is whittled away. I pray for both those who lost their homes and those that capitalized on their losses.

[SheilaT]

3. I'm actually somewhat surprised that

the death toll isn't significantly higher, given how the population has grown in recent decades. I suppose that's a tribute to warning systems that are available now, even given how quickly tornadoes happen.

[msongs]

4. Toto I think we are not in Japan anymore nt

[KG]

6. I don't know how you prepare for a disaster on the scale of these tornados

watching this vid only give one a small sample of the destruction - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x579234