Weather Storms.

Blue Mule · Tuesday at 12:55 PM

MMC said:
Your comments are timely and IMO correct. I am in KY and I pay attention to the weather. There's no farmer who does not. People's lives and our livestock, structures, equipment, and our crops are in peril in these events. And there seem to be more now than in my long ago youth.

As PonyTug noted earlier, maybe we need...a plan. In rural KY, a house trailer may be all folks can afford. And it's death on wheels in a tornado. As are many older houses out there in the country. But few strucures can take a direct hit from a tornado. No, we can't protect everyone with a personal shelter, but perhaps some centralized system of defining existing buildings to go to or community shelters to be built. But the point is it can't just be an ad hoc thing - it would have to be a true "system" with a defined structure. And more education of the public in general about buying in to such a plan.

As I write this, I am watching the Governor, Laurel County Sheriff, and local officials explaining a mandatory evacuation of people from debris fields using school buses or cruisers ahead of today's storms coming again to KY. They are trying to keep people safe and opening up places to put them. Government and municipal resources from across KY have been deployed to the London area to help, and many private folks are coming as well. I am always proud of my state during these times...

Now, a last thought. Is there waste in "government?" Yes, in some places, primarily due to Congress, as opposed to the executive branch, be it Democrat or Republican. And Congress is...us. But for Heaven's sake, stop cutting essential government services based on a bunch of young people running algorithms on a laptop without any real understanding of mission areas.
Attacking the scientific bodies within the government such as the National Weather Service is just...nuts. That forecaster on TV is relying on NOAA's satellites, supercomputers, and NWS weather balloons and the analysts from the NWS to provide accurate information. Because of cuts, the Jackson County, KY forecast staff can't even provide 24/7 coverage anymore. But they did, by coming in to work at night to keep people safe as I understand it. Yeah, you're damn right I'll pay their salary as a taxpayer.

Go after the waste, the political fat, DEI, whatever, but leave the essential services out of it. And have the brains to know which is which.

They say the NWS costs each taxpayer $3 per year. I'd gladly double that and pay $6 per year if they would fully staff WFOs and update the aging radar network which saw its last big upgrade in 1988.

QRTRHRS · Tuesday at 2:50 PM

While I appreciate the NWS on my weather radio, there could be better options. In the last couple of years, new fiber optic line was run less than one mile from me. I may as well be on the moon waiting for connections in my neighborhood. Living in another area with fiber, I think in ten years, I only lost the internet twice. I use Dish and Hughesnet so I may as well rely on a "weather rock" when it storms.

I did have a programmable weather radio that was I could set to just my county and a couple of adjacent counties but that one died so I have been relying on my one size fits all broadcast all until I replace it.

JeepHead · Tuesday at 3:04 PM

QRTRHRS said:
While I appreciate the NWS on my weather radio, there could be better options. In the last couple of years, new fiber optic line was run less than one mile from me. I may as well be on the moon waiting for connections in my neighborhood. Living in another area with fiber, I think in ten years, I only lost the internet twice. I use Dish and Hughesnet so I may as well rely on a "weather rock" when it storms.

I did have a programmable weather radio that was I could set to just my county and a couple of adjacent counties but that one died so I have been relying on my one size fits all broadcast all until I replace it.

Fiber has been siting in my front yard for weeks now. I know the x-box is wired up down the road, everything is there and ready to go, so I have no idea what the hold-up is. But AT&T still doesn't recognize that it's there ready to be installed.

MMC · Tuesday at 3:14 PM

JeepHead said:
Fiber has been siting in my front yard for weeks now. I know the x-box is wired up down the road, everything is there and ready to go, so I have no idea what the hold-up is. But AT&T still doesn't recognize that it's there ready to be installed.

If any of your funding for that line came from the Rural Internet government funding...try to get it while you can. Trump's quote on this:“a racist and illegal $2.5 billion giveaway.” Translate that for rural folks...like me...who pay far more than others for any kind of service.

QRTRHRS · Tuesday at 9:45 PM

The NWS has confirmed that the Somerset/Laurel county tornado was an EF4.

Blue Mule · Wednesday at 7:43 AM

QRTRHRS said:
The NWS has confirmed that the Somerset/Laurel county tornado was an EF4.

EF-2. The part of the path confirmed to be EF-4 is over in the London area.

Interestingly, that's the only EF-4 ever recorded in the Jackson, KY NWS forecast area. They did have one rated F-4 on the old scale back in 1974. Also, deadliest twister ever in their forecast area.

Oaktree · Wednesday at 8:27 AM

MMC said:
If any of your funding for that line came from the Rural Internet government funding...try to get it while you can. Trump's quote on this:“a racist and illegal $2.5 billion giveaway.” Translate that for rural folks...like me...who pay far more than others for any kind of service.

We just got fiber here late last year, what a difference from what we had before!! I'm sure the funding for it came from that program, we're not as far out as some of you but still thinly populated enough that it likely would never have been profitable for anyone to do it without taxpayer $.

JeepHead · Wednesday at 12:03 PM

MMC said:
If any of your funding for that line came from the Rural Internet government funding...try to get it while you can. Trump's quote on this:“a racist and illegal $2.5 billion giveaway.” Translate that for rural folks...like me...who pay far more than others for any kind of service.

Mine definitely came from that program. I am a former AT&T lineman and talked to one of my former lineman I worked with. He said my service will be turned on June 1st as they're making final splices now.

jmc · Wednesday at 1:25 PM

Indiana has many trailer parks, probably because much of the trailer industry is concentrated here so zoning is favorable. But yeah, some "The Simpson's" gallows humor about the risks.