Oklahomans? Midwesterners? You okay?

[Anymouse]

26. First tornadoes of this round were here in Nebraska.

As this storm system continues to generate tornadoes I hope folk are okay.

One thing I note about living in an extremely rural area of the country is that tornadoes are reported far differently than more urban areas, such as Oklahoma City.

The first tornadoes of this system generated were here yesterday in Broadwater, Nebraska, a town of 127 conservatives and me in the Panhandle. Three tornadoes were generated within five miles of town and all within ten minutes. One entered town (striking the cemetery but causing no deaths). News outlets, if they even bothered to mention the tornadoes at all, mentioned them as "striking mainly rural areas of Morrill County."

That is the usual of news reporting: we are "mainly-rural areas," not people. Lots of damage or deaths, that is news. Little damage or deaths, not news. The only place you will see Broadwater mentioned is on the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Website (which is providing all incidents of tornadoes, high wind, and hail from this system, where we are mentioned first in the list):

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/130518_rpts.html

Fact is, people live in these mainly-rural areas too. The cemetery tornado was less than a quarter-mile from my house. My yard has debris from the cemetery in it. A large number of farm buildings and crops were torn up both north and south of town, some cattle were injured by flying debris (I don't know if any were killed).