South
Tornado Alley shifts to the Southeast, storm shelters become more popular
More tornadoes in the Southeast put more population centers in the bullseye of what some researchers are calling a new Tornado Alley.
A study posted on the American Meteorological Society’s website found that tornadic activity in the Great Plains decreased by 25% in the last 35 years compared to the 35 years prior. In the same timeframe, tornadic activity jumped 12% in the Southeast.
Parts of Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky were among the states that have experienced more tornadoes, according to the study.
A report posted to the American Meteorological Society’s website found that tornadic activity in the Great Plains decreased by 25% in the last 35 years compared to the 35 years prior. In the same timeframe, tornadic activity jumped 12% in the Southeast. (Fox News)
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Mark Brasfield, Nashville Safe House Owner, said he’s sold thousands of storm shelters in his 33 years of selling them. He said he’d never seen intense demand in the Southeast until recently. Brasfield estimated his phone rings at least 20 times a day with people looking to buy storm shelters.
“It’s like insurance. You don’t think you’re ever going to have to use it, but if you need it, you got it,” Brasfield said.
Brasfield said his shelters are compliant with the standards set in place by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
A quarter inch of steel, reinforced walls and a dozen six-inch bolts help make Brasfield’s shelters withstand the 200-mph winds of an EF-5 tornado.
A dozen six-inch bolts, a quarter inch of steel and reinforced walls help allow some storm shelters to withstand winds of 200 mph. (Fox News)
“You get someone that moves here from a state that’s never had tornadoes. They are scared to death,” Brasfield said.
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Lawrence Behrs moved from California to Tennessee 10 years ago. He said he and his wife traded earthquakes and wildfires for tornadoes.
“We looked at maps and said, ‘okay, well, where could we move? Where would we be completely safe?’ And I just don’t think that exists anywhere,” Behrs said.
In December, Berhs finally decided to buy one of Brasfield’s family-sized storm shelters. He said it was installed in January, just in time for what he described as an already active tornado season in his area.
“With the increase in the occurrence of tornadoes and seemingly moving, you know, eastward from Tornado Alley, we decided that it would be a good investment for peace of mind,” Berhs said.
A 4’x8′ at-home tornado shelter is big enough to hold four adults. (Fox News)
The National Weather Service in Nashville has already issued 14 tornado warnings this year in their jurisdiction.
When his weather radio tells him that he and his wife are under a tornado warning, Berhs said they scramble to the storm shelter with a “go bag.” The shelter is bolted to his garage floor, steps away from his home.
“Heaven forbid that there’s a really serious tornado, but I have had visions of, you know, being in here, coming out of, you know, out of the shelter after a storm, and it’s the only thing standing, but hopefully that’ll never be a reality,” Berhs said.
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The United States gets an average of 1,425 tornadoes per year, according to numbers provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center. Nearly half of those tornadoes hit from April to June.
Tennessee’s redistricting special session Day 1 recap
State lawmakers returned to the capitol for a special session May 5 to consider carving Memphis into Republican-safe districts.
Tennessee House District 93 officially has someone in its briefly vacant seat.
Willis Lincoln TJ Hardaway III will hold the seat until the next general election in November. He has not made a decision as to if he will run officially for the seat yet, but will listen to the will of his constituents.
The house seat was formerly held by his father, State Rep. G.A. Hardaway, a Democrat from Memphis. Hardaway died on April 24. His death left the Tennessee House District 93 seat, which encompasses South Memphis and Orange Mound and stretches to Shelby Farms, open.
Hardaway was nominated by acclamation by the board. After he was nominated to the position, he spoke to commissioners and thanked all of them by name. He said he spent the last year spending a lot of time with his father, wanted to get to know him.
“This could not have been better timing. Last year, I spent various moments one on one with my father, for no other reason other than wanting to know more about the man…turns out I already knew the man because I already know myself,” Hardaway said.
He will travel to Nashville the evening of May 6 and be sworn in to office.
The Shelby County Commission moved swiftly to appoint someone to the seat due to the state legislature being called into a special session. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee called a special session of the Tennessee General Assembly to review the state’s congressional map on May 1, with the session beginning on May 5.
The push for redistricting Tennessee’s Congressional districts came from President Donald Trump, after the U.S. Supreme Court rolled back protections of the Voting Rights Act. The General Assembly was gaveled into the special session on May 5, which was also election day for many counties in Tennessee.
A map revealed the morning of May 6 splits the state’s 9th Congressional District and carves up Tennessee’s only majority-Black congressional seat, in Memphis. The new map shows three districts in Memphis, two of which stretch all the way to Williamson County outside Nashville.
Brooke Muckerman is the education and children’s issues and politics reporter for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at brooke.muckerman@commercialappeal.com.
PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) — Virginia Sen. L. Louise Lucas has carved out a reputation as a fierce and outspoken advocate during her political career. One issue, in particular, has been at the forefront of her agenda: legalization of marijuana, which she says disproportionately affects members of the African American community.
She felt so strongly about the issue, she sponsored a legalization bill and opened her own cannabis shop. Now, she’s under the microscope as federal law enforcement appears to have raided that business. It wasn’t immediately clear what they were looking for but it’s drawn attention to Lucas and her 34-year career in politics.
In 2019, she became the state’s first Black woman to hold the leadership post of Senate president pro tempore after Democrats seized the majority.
The next year, she appeared at a protest of a Confederate monument that led to felony charges against her. A judge later dismissed the charges.
Lucas was born in Portsmouth and worked at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard earlier in her life, where she was the first female ship fitter, according to a biography in the state library.
She has been the CEO of a Portsmouth business that runs residences, day programs and transportation for intellectually disabled adults. And in 2021, Lucas opened a store in her hometown of Portsmouth, The Cannabis Outlet, that sells legal hemp and CBD products.
“Let’s talk about pot,” Lucas said in a social media post on X in 2022. “Yes, we legalized it and I even opened the Cannabis Outlet after we did! But the job isn’t done. People are still in jail for something that is legal today.”
An armored FBI vehicle and several agents were seen outside Lucas’ cannabis store on Wednesday. The FBI would say only that it was conducting a court-authorized search warrant in Portsmouth.
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