Saving Lives in Tornadoes Won't Save the Taxpayers BIllions in Damages

But restricting development in tornado zones and eliminating fossil fuel use will save lives AND property.

Steve Benen at Maddowblog:

Oklahoma state Representative Joe Dorman grew up sitting in hallways, too, and hoping for the best. Now he is proposing that Oklahoma spend $500 million building safe rooms for schools and other public facilities. As part of the Democratic minority, Dorman will need bipartisan support if he's to get anywhere with a bill. He tells us:

"There is that Big Brother mentality that says, 'You can't tell me what to do. We will never get a mandate that says you have to have a safe room in your home. . . . [I]f we are going to mandate that our kids must be in school, then we need to mandate that they have somewhere safe to go when there's a tornado."

As it happens, the mayor of devastated Moore now says he'll push for an ordinance requiring safe rooms in new homes. Even as Oklahoma has offered funding for schools to build safe rooms, the state has also resisted having the government regulation needed to require them and the expense of building them.

Yeah, you conservatard voters in red states so thrilled with your no-tax-dollars-for-anybody-except-us congressional asswipes, the rest of us are sick and fucking tired of handing you billions of dollars in disaster aid every other year because you keep building in the same fucking place.

Sure, all the sweet federal gubmint bucks you can suck down for safe rooms in schools and libraries and courthouses - IF you build those houses and schools and libraries in high-density downtowns instead of spread the fuck out all over hell's half acre of tornado-attracting cornfields.

And IF you start promoting clean energy as a way to SAVE FUCKING LIVES.

And IF you demand that the government agencies that save your worthless asses year after year after year after year get all the tax-dollar funding they could ever imagine wanting.
Bryce Covert at Think Progress:

The tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma on Tuesday left incredible devastation and loss in its wake. But the damage may have been even worse if it weren’t for a warning from the National Weather Service (NWS) 16 minutes before it touched down, allowing some to seek out safety. As George Zornick reported at The Nation, the tornado emergency it sent out “no doubt saved hundreds of lives in Moore.”

But the NWS has been struggling with budget cuts in recent years and is facing down even more cuts thanks to sequestration. Zornick reports that the agency in which the NWS is housed, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has been on the budget cutting radar for some time:

You're fucking addicts, red states: addicted to the tax dollars of liberals and Democratic voters in blue states whom you so despise.

And yes, Kentucky is one of you.