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posted by martyb on Sunday December 12 2021, @03:45AM   Printer-friendly

At least 100 feared dead after tornadoes devastate six US states:

US President Joe Biden has pledged support to states affected by a swarm of devastating tornadoes that demolished homes, levelled businesses and left at least 100 people feared dead.

Describing the tornadoes as likely "one of the largest" storm outbreaks in history, Biden on Saturday approved an emergency disaster declaration for the worst-hit state of Kentucky, where at least 22 people have been confirmed dead.

"It's a tragedy," said a shaken Biden. "And we still don't know how many lives are lost and the full extent of the damage."

He added, "I promise you, whatever is needed – whatever is needed – the federal government is going to find a way to provide it."

The powerful twisters, which weather forecasters say are unusual in cooler months, destroyed a candle factory in Mayfield, Kentucky, ripped through a nursing home in neighbouring Arkansas, and killed at least six workers at an Amazon warehouse in Illinois.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said the collection of tornadoes was the most destructive in the state's history. He said about 40 workers had been rescued at the candle factory, which had about 110 people inside when it was reduced to a pile of rubble.

[...] Mayfield Fire Chief Jeremy Creason, whose own station was destroyed, said the candle factory was diminished to a "pile of bent metal and steel and machinery" and that responders had to at times "crawl over casualties to get to live victims".

[...] The tornado outbreak was triggered by a series of overnight thunderstorms, including a supercell storm that formed in northeast Arkansas. That storm moved from Arkansas and Missouri and into Tennessee and Kentucky.

Unusually high temperatures and humidity created the environment for such an extreme weather event at this time of year, said Victor Gensini, a professor in geographic and atmospheric sciences at Northern Illinois University.

"This is an historic, if not generational event," Gensini said.

If early reports are confirmed, the twister may have touched down for nearly 250 miles (400km), he said, a path length longer than the longest tornado on record, which tracked for about 220 miles (355 km) through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana in March 1925.

[...] The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center said it received 36 reports of tornadoes touching down in Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas, and Mississippi.

[...] In Edwardsville, Illinois, Fire Chief James Whiteford said at least six people were killed when an Amazon warehouse collapsed. Some 45 people survived.

[...] In Monette, Arkansas, one person was killed and five seriously injured when a tornado tore through a nursing home with 90 beds.

Also at phys.org, CNET, and CNN


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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday December 14 2021, @08:15PM (5 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday December 14 2021, @08:15PM (#1205085) Journal

    Yes, just like the species that caused the first mass extinction by exhaling a gas that was toxic to them, oxygen, we are making our own environment uninhabitable to our own species.

    How? I can't help but notice that the "species" that caused the first mass extinction (which incidentally probably was far from the first mass extinction!) is still around to soak up the problems that are allegedly making our own environment uninhabitable. I think such hyperbole poorly suits you.

  • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday December 18 2021, @08:47PM (4 children)

    by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Saturday December 18 2021, @08:47PM (#1206208) Homepage Journal

    Oxygen was toxic to the first species that exhaled it. When a similar species later appeared, the oxygen was here. Not all species die in any mass extinction, and that's when you have the biggest leaps of evolution.

    And there were no previous extinctions than the one caused by oxygen, they've looked back as far as life has existed here. The first billion years of life on Earth is called "the boring billion" because there was no evolution at all for that first billion. 750 million years later and here we are, half a dozen mass extinctions later. Were it not for the one 65 million years ago, we would not be here.

    --
    mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday December 19 2021, @08:41AM (3 children)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday December 19 2021, @08:41AM (#1206327) Journal

      And there were no previous extinctions than the one caused by oxygen, they've looked back as far as life has existed here.

      I strongly doubt that. What happened to all those organisms without cell walls, for example?

      The first billion years of life on Earth is called "the boring billion" because there was no evolution at all for that first billion.

      Or rather, there's no fossil record about which to describe that evolution. The cell wall and much of the internal biochemical processes came from somewhere.

      • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Sunday December 19 2021, @06:08PM (2 children)

        by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Sunday December 19 2021, @06:08PM (#1206418) Homepage Journal

        What happened to all those organisms without cell walls, for example?

        http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/06/tiny-vampires-fossils-life-evolution-earth-science/ [nationalgeographic.com]

        Or rather, there's no fossil record about which to describe that evolution/I>.

        RTFA.

        --
        mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday December 19 2021, @09:18PM (1 child)

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday December 19 2021, @09:18PM (#1206494) Journal
          The very first line:

          The corpses of the victims are roughly 750 million years old.

          The Great Oxygenation was thought to have started 2 to 2.4 billion years ago. So you're speaking of a period of time afterwards (the "Boring Billion" seems crudely to be the span of time 1 to 2 billion years ago - and I remain in strong doubt that they have enough information to know that period of time was boring in the evolutionary sense). And I'm speaking of extinctions that would happen well before the Great Oxygenation event.

          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday December 22 2021, @09:14PM

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday December 22 2021, @09:14PM (#1207215) Journal
            As example of my doubt about the "Boring Billion", it's thought that there was a snowball Earth at the end of that time. Glaciers erode rock quickly. The interesting part of that time span may be lost to us due to such erosion.