North Balti Zen

Sounds like, anecdotally, this one caught a lot of folks there off guard. Makes sense, Sunday night, people maybe less likely to be near a TV or the internet, family stuff going on, just not clued in to the approaching danger. Sounded like that from at least a few of the interviews I caught this morning while flipping around the dial. Saw one mention that this cell kind of "blew up" from not much to that over a short time period. If so, maybe that added to the surprise factor. Have not had a chance to go back and look at the maps of it as it developed yet and god knows how reliable the reports are on the major news stations, but that was some of the soundbites I caught.

Just glancing at headlines on msnbc and they are noting the current death toll at 89. Which is, obviously, horrifying. Not a religious person, but will hold a thought for JoMo and all others there.

The pictures coming out of Cullman, Alabama are stomach-churning. More of a population there in that small city than I thought, just under 14,000 people.

This. Even with warnings, and even if people heeded them, if there was no basement to go to, and if that was an EF-5 storm, there's only so much protection you are going to get in an interior room.