Thursday, February 7, 2008

An American Tragedy

"Woman's Safe Haven From Storms Fails Her"- so the headline read. What, I wondered- was her tornado cellar torn from the ground? Did the twister take the concrete pillbox she'd built to hide in?

No- the tin mobile home she had parked in a fold in the ground on her property had been blown away.

It seems that, over the years, the family had noticed that most tornadoes jumped over that fold in the ground. Just the fact that you see that many tornadoes should suggest to you the idea of some serious shelter. Apparently, it did not.

Her body was found 30 feet from the former home. And somehow, the idea of putting a cheap manufactured home in a location you have seen several tornadoes leap over seems so typically American I could not let it pass without comment.

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