Highly Successful Tornado Warnings: Your Government At Work

Next time one of your Republican acquaintances tells you that the federal government cannot do anything right, tell them about this.

The tornadoes were unrelenting — more than 100 in 24 hours over a stretch of the Plains states. They tossed vehicles and ripped through homes. They drove families to their basements and whipped debris across small towns throughout the Midwest. In some areas, baseball-size hail rained from the sky.

And yet, in a stroke that some officials have attributed to a more vigilant and persistent warning system, relatively few people were killed or injured.

The warnings go something like this: “This is a life-threatening situation. You could be killed if not underground or in a tornado shelter.”

Kudos to the National Weather Service. Oh yeah, Rick Santorum, you were wrong.