Deadly Tornadoes Bring Heartbreak And Questions on Resiliency and Climate Change
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 15 December 2021
⏱️ 11 minutes
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Summary
Of the several states that the storms tore through last weekend, Kentucky was the hardest hit. At least 74 people have been confirmed dead there. Many more are unaccounted for.
As survivors, volunteers, and officials sort through and pick up what's left, how might they think about shoring up homes, businesses and buildings for the future? NPR's Audie Cornish speaks with University of Florida civil engineering professor David Prevatt about how to prepare buildings for tornadoes and hurricanes.
The severity and timing of these storms have also raised the question of whether climate change has anything to do with tornadoes. NPR correspondent Dan Charles reports.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | That is the sound of just one of the tornadoes that touched down late Friday in the middle |
| 0:07.5 | of the country. |
| 0:09.0 | Twitter videos shared by the Washington Post show a massive funnel cloud churning across |
| 0:14.1 | the field against a dark gray sky. |
| 0:17.4 | Dozens of storms tore through several states, and the worst of them hit Kentucky. |
| 0:22.4 | Entire towns were leveled in minutes. |
| 0:25.1 | Tensions reduced to scrap, an occasional Christmas tree poking out of the piles, power lines |
| 0:30.4 | tangled in the branches of uprooted trees. |
| 0:34.2 | At least 74 people have been confirmed dead in Kentucky, and many others are still unaccounted |
| 0:40.2 | for. |
| 0:41.6 | This week, survivors are coming to grips with what they've lived through and what they've |
| 0:45.5 | lost. |
| 0:46.5 | Some, I just like the pictures of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. |
| 0:50.0 | The town's unrecognizable in some parts. |
| 0:52.2 | Yeah, the Christmas tree I think got sucked up with the presents. |
| 0:57.2 | So we don't have no more presents for? |
| 0:59.4 | Yeah. |
| 1:00.4 | I love to brood around the S.Y.V. in the S.Y.V. |
| 1:04.3 | They didn't like it. |
| 1:07.8 | One of the hardest hit small towns in Kentucky is Dawson Springs. |
| 1:11.5 | At least a dozen people have been confirmed dead there. |
| 1:14.5 | And officials say at least two thirds of the homes in Dawson Springs have been destroyed. |
... |
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