Monday, April 18, 2011

Monday's Odds and Ends

North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue MIA During Tornado Outbreak - Where was North Carolina's Governor during Saturday's disaster?

In the aftermath of Saturday's storms, the governor's office refused to answer questions about Perdue's whereabouts. Apparently media calls to Perdue's office could not reach the Governor throughout much of the day.

The governor was not present at the 8 p.m. media briefing and state Emergency Management Director Doug Hoell indicated he had not yet spoken directly with her.

But around 8:15 PM she was spotted changing planes in Charlotte.

Shortly after 9 p.m. Perdue communications director Chrissy Pearson said that Perdue had been out of the state attending to a "family obligation."

Then at 10:16 Perdue's staff issued a media release saying she would hold a briefing in Raleigh at 11 p.m.



At 11:05 more than 12 hours after the start what may be costliest tornado outbreak in the Tarheel state's history, she announced at the late night media conference that she had declared a state of emergency while looking like she had been on a weekend long bender.

Turns out Perdue was not attending a family event but was in Lexington, Kentucky visiting with fellow Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear attending the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes, a thoroughbred horse race that severs are one of many Kentuchy Debry warm up parties. The "Blue Grass Stakes" the feature race during the day long event was not held until 5:45 PM.

Was Language To Blame for Eastern North Carolina Tornado Deaths? - Given the state's large Latino population and the evidence from some of the photos, Cedar Posts wonders if any of the 22 people who died Saturday didn't understand that multiple tornadoes were bearing down on them?


Residents of Stony Brook North Mobile Home Park

At least two trailer parks were destroyed by the storms. Why anyone would take shelter inside a mobile home during a tornado outbreak is beyond me. Most of the moblie homes in the path of the tornado that swept through Bertie County are simply gone and ten people lost their lives.

In the Stony Brook North moblie home park 3 boys were killed. Police say Cristina Alvarez was home with the children when she heard the tornado approaching the park. At the time, police say Alvarez tried to protect the children by putting them in a closet but a tree smashed into the home killing 9-year-old Daniel Quistian, 3-year-old Kevin Coronado and 8-year-old Osvaldo Coronado.

More than 50% of the trailers in the neighbor hood have been completly destoryed or will be condemmed.

Is it possible that because the warnings are not given in Spanish these people didn't understand what was about to happen? Should TV news stations run a crawl every once in a while in Spanish during these events? After all they repeat the same mindless warning of stay away from windows, stay out of mobile homes, take cover in a basement or drainage ditch over and over again. So why not in Spanish too?

CMPD Reports Only 8 Homicides So Far This Year - Got to give credit to someone so it might as well be CMPD. We started the year off in the right direction with only one homicide in January and none in February. But Saturday's 8th victim Larry Dean Wallace, 40, puts the lull into perspective, there are bad people out there and people get murdered.

10 comments:

Billy Fehr said...

Have you ever seen her chewing gum just off camera? I have, it is an amazing sight...

Anonymous said...

Too bad for them maybe they shouldd learn a little english?

JAT said...

The Rawlee media is obviously covering up something for Bev.

Anonymous said...

Cedar since when did you become a bleeding heart liberal?

If the illegals don't like the weather they should go home!

Anonymous said...

I'd guess they don't have many twisters in Mexico do they?

Anonymous said...

Cedar nice idea but you ot to know the Mexicans are not in any station's demographics.

Didn't you hear the collective GASP! That was WCNC's NBC17 and other news director's reaction to your idea to broadcast tornado warnings in spanish.

No one will do that because they fear losing market share.

I saw your tweet to Brad at WCNC 36 and as you saw no reply. Way to toxic of a subject. Sure they should will they? Never~! Just saying.....

Anonymous said...

Perdue what a joke! How tall is that woman 3 may 4 feet.

Billy Fehr tell us about the gum chewing. Details man Details

Anonymous said...

Mexicans don't have sense enough to come out of the rain much less get out of the way of a tornado, hasta la vista baby.....

Anonymous said...

It's not just that TV stations didn't have warnings that were in Spanish. If they are undocumented and not native speakers, they are less likely to know what to do in case of a tornado.

Immigration reform will go a long ways toward helping this huge demographic to be better educated about living in this country.

Amnesty. Now.

Rea Road Neighborhood Coalition said...

Immigration reform will take decades to put in place and I don't agree with amnesty for anyone in the United States who has crossed the border in the middle of the night or who has stayed past their visa expiration date.

But these people are here and we have a duty to help our fellow man regardless of their documentation status.

I would hope if I was in Costa Rica surfing and there was a hurricane warning issued someone would say hey American did you not get the message?