FEMA Administrator W. Craig Fugate has what he describes as a "Waffle House" theory of emergency management to assess how bad a situation is after a disaster. "If the Waffle House is open and serving food and has got a full menu, then it's green," he said during an interview inside a FEMA mobile home parked outside a fire station in Joplin. "If the Waffle House is open but has a limited menu, it's yellow, and if the Waffle House isn't open, that's red." -
FEMA Gets its Groove Back
posted by Slap*Happy
on May 27, 2011 -
93 comments
A wave of powerful storm cells swept the southeastern United States this week, spawning
hundreds of tornadoes that wreaked havoc from Texas to Virginia. While damage was widespread throughout the region, the most terrible toll was seen in Alabama, which has accounted for two-thirds of
the more than 300 reported deaths -- the deadliest since the Great Depression -- and where
many small towns were simply wiped from the map. Especially hard-hit was the university town of Tuscaloosa, the state's fifth-largest, where a monstrous F5 tornado (seen in
this terrifying firsthand video) tore a
vicious track through entire neighborhoods and business districts -- narrowly missing the region's primary hospital -- and continuing a path that rained debris as far as Birmingham, over sixty miles away. The disaster
prompted a visit from President Obama today, who declared
"I've never seen devastation like this" after surveying the area with Governor Robert Bentley, Senator Richard Shelby, and
Mayor Walter Maddox. More: photos from
In Focus and
The Big Picture,
aerial footage of the aftermath,
"before and after" sliders, the path of the Tuscaloosa twister
on Google Maps,
People Locator,
local aid information,
MetaTalk check-in thread
posted by Rhaomi
on Apr 29, 2011 -
102 comments
Tornado Pictures On Tuesday March 28th at 6:11 P.M. a tornado pummeled downtown Ft. Worth
leaving glass, office furniture, insulation, paperwork, and various other
materials littering a 12 block area of the city. The downtown streets were covered in
shattered glass from the many High-Rise building that were struck by the violent winds
and flying debris. I took some pictures from a 26th floor office window 1 block away
from the epicenter of the storms wrath. At the top of picture 3
you can see the Cash America building that they keep showing on the news - I don't have a
Telephoto lens or it would be a better pic, DOH! You can also see clean up crews
on the roofs of the buildings picking up debris.One of the windows I took the pictures
through was cracked by flying debris, you can see it in picture 2,3, and 6.
PICTURES: 1 2
3 4 5 6
posted by Jeremy
on Mar 30, 2000 -
0 comments
