Showing posts with label tornado. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tornado. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

'Heartless' Mayor Refuses To Let Residents Stay In FEMA Trailers After Storm

A mayor in a small town devastated by a tornado has sparked outrage over his refusal to let homeless residents stay in trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Jack Scott has been branded heartless after his decision not to waive a local law banning single-wide trailers in the town of Cordova, Alabama.

He said he fears the temporary accommodation could become permanent and says he doesn't want run-down mobile homes parked all over town.

Angry residents met on Saturday night and called for Mr Sciott's removal from office.

One resident, James Ruston, said his house was knocked off its foundation by the tornadoes that blasted through the town last month and is still uninhabitable.

He thought help had finally arrived when a truck pulled up to his property with a mobile home from FEMA.

Then he was informed of the ban on single-wide mobile homes.

Mr Ruston and many others see the city's decision as a sign that leaders don't care that some people are barely surviving in the rubble.

Felicia Boston, standing on a debris-strewn plot where a friend lost his home in the tornado, said: 'People have to live somewhere. What's it matter if it's in a trailer?'

Mr Scott, however, has heard all the complaints but is unrepentant.

He said: 'I don't feel guilty. I can look anyone in the eye.'

Blue-collar Cordova has a population of about 2,000 and is 35 miles north west of Birmingham.

It was hit by a pair of powerful tornadoes on April 27, the day twisters killed more than 300 people across the South east.

Officials say 238 died in Alabama, the highest death toll for any state in a spring of violent weather, the Associated Press reports.

An EF-3 tornado with winds of at least 140mph walloped the town around 5.30am, knocking out power and damaging numerous buildings.

An EF-4 with winds around 170mph struck about 12 hours later, killing four people and cutting a path of destruction a half-mile wide through Cordova.

On Main Street, virtually every storefront was destroyed and is now deserted, blocked by a chain-link fence.
Scores of homes, businesses and city buildings were destroyed.

Residents assumed they would be living in hundreds of the skinny FEMA mobile homes like people in neighbouring towns hit by tornadoes.

The Cordova Police Department, a pharmacy, a bank and City Hall all have moved into similar trailers since the storm.

But the city enacted a law three years ago that bans single-wide trailers.

Mr Scott said that older single-wide mobile homes are allowed under the law as well as double-wide mobile homes.

The law is the law, he said, and a tornado isn't any reason to change it.

The residents disgust and despair is exacerbated by the decisions of other towns with similar laws that have granted waivers.

At Saturday night's meeting resident Harvey Hastings said: 'There are trailers all over here but Scott wants to clean all the trash out. He doesn't like lower-class people.'

The cotton mill, brick plant and coal mine that once made Cordova prosperous shut down years ago.

Resident Tony Tidwell said residents simply can't afford to new houses to replace the homes that the twisters blew away.

He accused the city of double standards over it decision to the local authorities to use trailers but not residents.

'Let the people have a place to live,' he said.

Mr Scott defended that decision by saying the city can use small trailers because it is for the common good.

The mayor said: 'It's temporary and we know it's temporary. We're trying to provide services for everyone.'

Storm victims are supposed to live in FEMA accommodation for a maximum of 18 months after a disaster, yet about 260 campers are still occupied by survivors of hurricanes Katrina and Rita on the Gulf Coast more than five years after those storms.

Mr Scott said the same thing could happen in Cordova if the city bends it rules to help tornado victims.


Tuesday, March 15, 2011

State Wide Tornado Drill For Virginia Today

REMINDER- FOR THOSE REGISTERED

Virginians will conduct the annual statewide tornado drill on Tuesday, March 15, 2011 (today) at 9:45. Throughout the Eastern Shore and the rest of Virginia, emergency services staff, schools and hundreds of other state and county agencies will participate in the drill.

March 15 was designated by Governor McDonnell as Tornado Preparedness Day in Virginia. The state will send a test tornado warning that will trigger a tone alert and broadcast on NOAA Weather Radio, simulating what will be heard during a genuine emergency. That message will be broadcast on radio and tv stations across the Commonwealth.

Virginians are encouraged to use the test as an opportunity to rehearse plans of what to do to protect your family during an actual tornado alert, make sure you have adequate emergency supplies at hand and know where you will go quickly should a tornado approach.

In the past three years 62 tornadoes touched down in Virginia injuring 220 and causing nearly $50 million in property damage, according to the emergency management department.



For more information: www.vaemergency.com
www.shoredailynews.com

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Possible Tornado Slams Into Mans Home And Shed

MACHIPONGO, Va. (WAVY) - A possible tornado touched down Monday afternoon in Northhampton County, according to the NOAA's National Weather Service.

The NOAA reported that the damage was 30 yards wide and one quarter mile long.

In that swath sat the remains of a mobile home off Langford Parkway. A brown recliner stood in the middle of what was the living room. It was also the spot where an 86-year-old man rode out a possible tornado.

"He was home. He was sitting in the chair, and he actually said he used his laptop to protect his head," said Assistant Chief Adam Zieger of the Eastville Fire Department.

The man walked away with just a bump. However, it wasn't until the World War II vet shut off the gas and called his family did he call 911."It was called in as a house exploded," said Zieger.

Viewers sent daylight photos to WAVY.com which showed the roof gone and the walls collapsed. Two sheds in the backyard were destroyed.

"You can see the trail through the tomato fields south of where that house is. You can see a path through the woods where the tree branches and tops of trees taken off," said Zieger.
It's not everyday nature's fury pays a visit to the Eastern Shore. Zieger said something like this hasn't happened since he was a child. "..You start seeing tree roots uprooted, pieces of the man's trailer roof," said Zieger.

The man is currently staying with his family.

www.wavy.com