Acclaimed actor Henry Winkler shared a message of sympathy for those impacted by this weekend’s deadly streak of tornadoes. The Happy Days star retweeted a clip of aerial footage showing the destruction around Mayfield, Kentucky. He wrote: “To ALL OF YOU, whose lives were torn apart, we are thinking [of] and praying [for] you and yours.”
Winkler’s tweet led back to a video by photojournalist Brandon Clement uploaded on Saturday, as well as a comment from cable news pundit Yamiche Alcindor. All of the posts racked up comments of shock and messages of sympathy much like Winkler’s. The actor did not post anything else about the tornadoes as the weekend went on, but new images continued to come out, including some horrifying scenes from the ground.
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Tornadoes ravaged six states from Friday into Saturday – Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi and Tennessee. According to a report by CNN, over 100 people are feared dead in Kentucky at the time of this writing, with at least 80 deaths confirmed so far. Gov. Andy Beshear appeared on CNN on Sunday morning to discuss the recovery plan.
“I know people can see the visuals, but that goes on for 12 blocks or more in some of these places. And it’s going to take us time,” he said. “You think you would go door-to-door to check on people and see if they’re OK. There are no doors. The question is, is somebody in the rubble of thousands upon thousands of structures? I mean, it is devastating.”
Of course, the tornado damage itself is not the whole of the problem. Over 50,000 people in Kentucky reportedly have no power, leaving some without heat and without a way to safely store food in the midst of their devastated communities.
As rescue and relief efforts got underway, the top FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell appeared on CNN on Sunday as well to warn that these kinds of storms are “our new normal” because of climate change.
“This is going to be our new normal,” Criswell said bluntly of the natural disaster trend. “The effects we are seeing of climate change are the crisis of our generation. We’re taking a lot of efforts at FEMA to work with communities to help reduce the impacts that we’re seeing from these severe weather events and help to develop systemwide projects that can help protect communities.”
Scientific research on the correlation between climate change and tornadoes is not as thorough as the links between climate change and other natural disasters like hurricanes, droughts and floods. Still, the divisive issue dominated the conversation on social media this weekend.
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