Hurricane Names For This Season

Ken AshfordDisastersLeave a Comment

Some hurricane names just sound like they will be bad. I'm guessing that Hurricane Andrea, Hurricane Dorian, Hurricane Nestor, Hurricane Olga, and Hurricane Pablo will all be serious contenders.  But they will all pale compared to Hurricane Gabrielle. But don't sweat Hurricane Barry or Hurricane Chantel.

God-Evoking During Tragedies

Ken AshfordDisasters, Godstuff, Right Wing and Inept MediaLeave a Comment

Well, this is a refreshing change: You’d think by now CNN would have learned to stop treating its assumptions as truths. But when Wolf Blitzer made a casual comment Tuesday, it turned out to be a teachable moment both for the newsman and television viewers. Speaking live to a survivor of the deadly tornado in Moore, Okla., Blitzer declared the woman … Read More

WTF Quote Of The Day

Ken AshfordDisasters, Republicans1 Comment

After Hurricane Sandy, Republican Senator Inhofe (and others) voted against a bill for $50.5 billion in Hurricane Sandy disaster relief. But he's all for relief for Oklahoma victims. On MSNBC, Inhofe argued that tornado aid for Oklahoma is “totally different” from aid for Hurricane Sandy. “Everyone was getting in and exploiting the tragedy taking place,” he said. “That won’t happen in Oklahoma.” Right.  Can … Read More

Devastation in Oklahoma

Ken AshfordDisastersLeave a Comment

It was bizarre yesterday — I just happened to be at my desk and saw a news alert, and soon I was watching the live streaming video of that main F4.  I saw it form, I saw it grow and devestate, and I saw it die.  The good thing about that means, if *I* saw all that, certainly the people … Read More

What The Texas Explosion Reveals

Ken AshfordCongress, Crime, Disasters, Gun ControlLeave a Comment

I was reading an analysis of last night's fertilizer explosion in West, Texas, and came upon this paragraph: This explosion is nothing at all like what happened in Oklahoma City back in 1995. That was a mixture of ammonium nitrate, a dry solid, and diesel fuel. Ammonium nitrate is made from ammonia, but the United States banned it after that … Read More

Finding Nemo

Ken AshfordDisastersLeave a Comment

Hold on, New England! From The Weather Channel: The heaviest snow totals by early Sunday morning are expected in New England from coastal Maine to Connecticut, as well as the Adirondacks of Upstate New York, where over one foot of snow is expected!  Some locations, particularly in coastal New England, may top two feet of storm total snow!  The following cities … Read More

Plainly Stupid

Ken AshfordDisastersLeave a Comment

AP reports: The lead police investigator into a nightclub fire that killed 234 people in southern Brazil says the music group playing at the time lit a flare designed for outdoor use that set the club's ceiling on fire. Police inspector Marcelo Arigony said in a news conference Tuesday that "the flare was for outdoor use only and the people who lit them know that."  

Breaking: Another Gulf Oil Spill?

Ken AshfordDisastersLeave a Comment

Happening right now. Four rushed to hospital after rig explosion.  Offshore from New Orleans, because those people haven't had to face any kind of disasters ever. Apparently not deep water, so presumably it can be capped. The owner of the platform is Black Elk Energy. On its website, the company stated that this month it was starting to drill the first of … Read More

Sandy By The Numbers

Ken AshfordDisastersLeave a Comment

The immensity of the impact of Superstorm Sandy on the Eastern U.S. is difficult to comprehend, and the scenes of devastation coming from the impact zone are stunning and heart-wrenching. To help understand the extraordinary scale of this historic storm, I've put together a list of notable statistics from Sandy: Death toll: 160 (88 in the U.S., 54 in Haiti, 11 … Read More

Wow

Ken AshfordDisastersLeave a Comment

Michael "Brownie" Brown, the former FEMA director famously known for botching Katrina in part by dragging his feet, accuses Obama of reacting too quickly to Sandy. Seriously. BTW, kudos to Republican governor Chris Christie.  “The president was great last night,” Christie said on FOX today. “He said he would get it done. At 2 a.m., I got a call fromFEMA to answer a … Read More

Yes, Mitt Is Campaigning

Ken AshfordDisasters, Election 20121 Comment

Mitt Romney has suspended his campaign out of concern and sympathy for Sandy, except… he hasn't. He's in Ohio right now, at a "storm relief event". Here's the press pass given to NPR's Ari Shapiro… It looks like a VICTORY RALLY to me. Here's a sign there…. Here's the Romney campaign video playing… And here's a Politico reporter reporting on … Read More