The people in the Southern Plains, and Midwest of the United States live with the fear of weather that can kill us.
Every year, primarily in spring, we prepare our "fraidy holes" and put new batteries in our Weather Radios.
This is because we are scared!
We are scared that, even with all of our technological advances, something as simple as the weather can kill us. We don't live in fear, we are not cowed, nor do we cower, but we do know when to be afraid.
Being afraid, paying attention, preparing effectively keeps us alive to fight the Republicans another day. It keeps the Republicans alive too, and on a night like tonight they are simply our neighbors.
We turn on the TeeVee machine and forsake our "Desperate Housewives" for wall to wall weather broadcasts. Sometimes those guys are live on TV for twelve hours or more. All network programming is cancelled, or moved to cable, and we watch as our fellow citizens homes are blown away, hoping it won't be ours, but prepared if it is.
We go to Facebook, Twitter and yes, we go to Daily Kos.
We rely on the information and comfort that people like weatherdude bring, with his up-to-the-minute reporting, and the camaraderie of the comment threads.
What we do not need are people expressing "concern" about such trivial matters as hyperbole, or emotive reporting. Simply put, there is no way to describe an EF5 tornado that breaks the bounds of decency. It isn't possible.
You could describe it as the Wrath of God and the Smiting of the Earth by the Lightening Rod of Zeus, and it would still not accurately reflect the power and majesty of a wind that can blow a substantial home or factory right off it's foundations.
The National Weather Service (look them up) issues various level of warnings. They have Severe Storm Watch, Severe Storm Warning, Tornado Watch, Tornado Warning. It's that last you really need to pay attention to.
Very occasionally, like they did today, the NWS ( a bunch of calm. rational weather geeks) issues a Tornado Emergency.
They are telling people to get underground, or die.
It is that simple, and I say to anyone who feels that this is hyperbole, take it up with the NWS, and leave our comment threads unsullied by your ignorance.
We are fine tonight.
You're welcome.