Tim Rogers: A forgettable spring

Published 2:39 am Sunday, May 29, 2011

Good morning.

I hope everyone is having an enjoyable Memorial Day weekend, particularly those students and teachers who have started their summer breaks from the classroom.

In between your cookouts, trips to the pool and lake and games of horseshoes in the yard or cards on the back deck, please take time to remember the many people whose lives have been forever changed by the most difficult spring that I can ever remember.

At no other time in my lifetime — I was born in 1965 — has nature’s wrath taking such a vicious toll from this country and left such visible and deep wounds, much of it in the South.

It was less than two months ago that the worst tornado outbreak in North Carolina in 25 years did more than a billion dollars worth of damage to that state and 24 people were killed. In many years it would be the storm of the year, but in barely two weeks it was erased by one of the single deadliest weather-related days in the history of the country. And then, less than a month later, the deadliest single tornado in the U.S. in 60 years plowed its path of destruction through Joplin, Mo.

It has been such a destructive season for tornadoes that as I sat down to write this column I found that I couldn’t even remember all of the storms that have passed over us this year. It as if my brain has been screaming, “Too much! Too much!”

Like many of the us, I have seen some of the damage done to Ringgold, been amazed at the destruction that was left behind and witnessed the determination of those who are working to rebuild the town.

But what is going on in Ringgold is being repeated in community after community after community across the country. In other years, the eyes of the nation would have turned to tiny Ringgold, but this year it is just one of many towns digging out, worse off than some and better off than others.

Needing some concrete information, I did what we all do when we are faced with not remembering something — I Googled it.

After fumbling around trying to get the right combination of words in my search, I finally stumbled upon a Wikipedia page simply called tornadoes of 2011.

Let me first say that I understand that many people don’t consider Wikipedia to be first class research and in fact my daughter and son have both told me that their teachers don’t allow it to be a source when they are doing papers.

That is fine. But as a source of quick information I have found it to be both useful and invariably correct.

Just the raw numbers reported on the site are staggering to think about.

Since Jan. 1, there have been 947 confirmed tornadoes in the United States, including four EF5 tornadoes — three of which occurred on April 27 in the South and the fourth last Sunday in Joplin. Those tornadoes have killed more than 506 people and caused an estimated $9 billion in damage. And we haven’t even reached June yet.

It is the deadliest year for tornado deaths since 1953, according to the website’s numbers.

By comparison, between 2003 and 2010, 493 people were killed by tornadoes across the country and those storms caused less damage that we have suffered already this year.

Because we did not suffer any damage, it is incumbent upon us to help those in need, and we have responded magnificently to that task. An untold number of volunteers from Whitfield and Murray counties have volunteer their time and given generously to the people of Ringgold and many other places.

As we gather to remember our loved ones who have passed on before us and honor those who gave their lives in the service of this country, make sure you say at least a small prayer for the people of Ringgold, Tuscaloosa, Joplin and all the other towns where a hole has been left.

I hope we are at the end of tornado season. Of course, I hoped we were at the end four weeks ago. I hope I don’t see another spring like this one ever again.

Tim Rogers is editor of The Daily Citizen. Email him at timrogers@daltoncitizen.com.