'Trail of destruction' as tornadoes, storms in 3 states kill at least 32: Live updates

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

At least 32 people were killed in Kentucky, Missouri and Virginia after storms and tornadoes tore through the region as part of an extreme weather outbreak on May 16, "leaving behind a trail of destruction," authorities said.

The toll includes at least 23 dead in Kentucky and seven in Missouri, authorities there said. The number of fatalities was expected to continue increasing, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said.

The Kentucky deaths were concentrated in Laurel County in the southeastern part of the state, where a tornado tore through the city of London. A Laurel County firefighter died while responding. Randall Weddle, mayor of the city of London, told the Louisville Courier Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network, that at least 23 people there died. Beshear confirmed at least 18 deaths: 17 in Laurel County and one in Pulaski County. The youngest victim is a 25-year-old Laurel County man.

Beshear said during a 5 p.m. press conference on May 17 that he expected the Kentucky death toll to "potentially rise."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/tornadoes-tear-kentucky-missouri-least-131248804.html

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Reduced warnings, no FEMA, insurance going up, Canadian lumber tariff taxed

How do they like tRump 2.0? Tired of winning yet?

[Lovie777]

2. shithole musk republicans do not care.....

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. ... until their nephew dies in a storm. . . . nt

[k_buddy762]

4. From the article

"Politics has no place in responding to national disasters like this one, and for the two events that we've already had this year, we've seen a White House and a FEMA organization that has performed well and has done what we've asked,” he said.

--

And I saw nothing about "reduced warnings"

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. I've read on DU that warnings for the current round of storms came later than usual, like while they were raging

But I think you are right that Beshear's comments on FEMA are correct, at this time. I think the FEMA cuts will bite this summer, but not yet. The regime has promised to push responsibility onto the states.

Any info on FEMA stuff in Johnson-tRump's horrific "Big Beautiful Bill"?

[k_buddy762]

6. Excellent question. Here's what I found.

The "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," spearheaded by President Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, includes significant changes affecting FEMA's funding and role in disaster management.

FEMA Funding and Program Cuts
No Additional Disaster Relief Funding: The bill does not allocate new funds to FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund, which is projected to be depleted by June, coinciding with the start of the Atlantic hurricane season.

Elimination of BRIC Grants: The Trump administration has canceled all Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grants approved from fiscal years 2020 through 2023. This action affects numerous projects aimed at disaster preparedness and infrastructure resilience across various communities.

Shift Toward State-Led Disaster Management
Reduction in FEMA's Role: The administration proposes a significant reduction in FEMA's responsibilities, advocating for a transition of disaster response and recovery efforts to state and local governments. This move is part of a broader strategy to decentralize emergency management.

Leadership Changes: In line with these reforms, the acting FEMA director, Cameron Hamilton, was dismissed after expressing opposition to diminishing FEMA's role. He was replaced by David Richardson, who has signaled a strong commitment to implementing the administration's vision for FEMA.

Broader Implications
These proposed changes have sparked bipartisan concern, especially given the increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters. Critics argue that reducing federal support and shifting responsibilities to states may hinder effective disaster response and recovery efforts.

As the bill progresses through Congress, its provisions related to FEMA and disaster management are likely to be focal points of debate and scrutiny.



In fairness, all of the cited sources are left-leaning, and while I don't necessarily have the evidence to dispute them outright, I am generally skeptical of ideological sourcing unless I can find source material from the "other side" and get additional perspective.

[ornotna]

7. You provide no links

How do we determine these are ‘left leaning’ sources?

[k_buddy762]

9. The output is from Chat GPT

which is many things, but is actually a superb aggregator of various information and news sites. I will happily re-post the original output with the links it provided, however they will just be plaintext, not hyperlinked.

[highplainsdem]

10. ChatGPT also hallucinates, can generate very different answers to the same prompt at different times,

and should never be trusted as a source of information, because it will invent its sources and quotes or mischaracterize content. What it generates should always be checked carefully.

Or better yet, don't use it, because it was trained illegally and unethically on intellectual property OpenAI had no right to use.

Much better to use search engines like Google - but avoid Google's AI Overview, which not only gets a lot wrong but steals web traffic and ad revenue from the sites it first stole information from.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. Thank you. Great work. I have not heard of anything that contradicts your findings

The bill does not allocate new funds to FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund, which is projected to be depleted by June, coinciding with the start of the Atlantic hurricane season.

That is going to impact soon.

It is famously said that nobody is safe while while Congress is in session. Things can happen in the middle of the night, like being slipped in, taken out, or bad stuff left there. So we'll have to see what develops.