The Associated Press characterized the number of fatalities from these storms Â-more than 340 as of Saturday -- as something that "seems out of a bygone era, before Doppler radar and pinpoint satellite forecasts were around to warn communities of severe weather. Residents were told the tornadoes were coming up to 24 minutes ahead of time, but they were just too wide, too powerful and too locked onto populated areas to avoid a horrifying body count."
It is precisely those "pinpoint satellite forecasts" that Congress, including every GOP member of Alabama's delegation, decided were luxuries America cannot afford when it passed the continuing resolution to keep the government operating for the remainder of the fiscal year.
Alabama's GOP delegation, it turns out, had other priorities, besides protecting citizens of the state from killer storms:
As we have discussed in previous posts, this action eliminated funding to replace the environmental satellites that help make our forecasts a reality. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has stated in no uncertain terms that these aging satellites will fail, and our failure to buy new ones this year will cause at least an 18 month gap in coverage.
Clearly, Congressional Republicans were more interested in protecting the $5.5 billion in subsidies and foregone royalty payments for Big Oil--which collectively reported a total of more than $30 billion in first quarter profits this week--than they were in spending the $700 million necessary to literally save the lives of their constituents.
By the way, a recent report from the Center for American Progress shows that extreme weather is becoming increasingly costly--both in terms of dollars and lives:
These extreme events included "supercell thunderstorms" in Iowa, severe drought and record wildfires in Texas, and heavy rains across the United States. The recent southeastern storms and tornadoes took at least 297 lives across eight states. And heavy rains in the Mississippi River valley could cause the most severe, damaging floods there in nearly a century.
This extreme weather, though record setting in some places, may be the new normal. Last year, unprecedented extreme weather led to a record number of disaster declarations by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The United States and the world were swept by flooding, severe winter storms, heat waves, droughts, hurricanes, and tornadoes.
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