Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Deadly Storms In South A Harsh Reminder Of The Difficulties That Come With Dueling Catastrophes
The New York Times: Dozens Are Killed As Tornadoes And Severe Weather Strike Southern States
Like most Americans, Mamie Harper and her husband had tucked themselves away at home in an effort to keep the coronavirus at bay. On Easter Sunday, they listened to an audio feed of their church service while huddled indoors. But a different kind of trouble soon found them. A tornado — one of dozens that tore across the Southeast this weekend — roared over their street on Sunday afternoon, snapping trees, blowing away keepsakes and launching cars from their parking spots. (Fentress and Fausset, 4/13)
The Associated Press: Storms Tear Through South Amid Pandemic; More Than 30 Dead
Nine died in South Carolina, Gov. Gov. Henry McMaster said, and coroners said eight were killed in Georgia. Tennessee officials said three people were killed in and around Chattanooga, and others died under falling trees or inside collapsed buildings in Arkansas and North Carolina. With a handful of tornadoes already confirmed in the South and storms still raging up the Eastern Seaboard, forecasters fanned out to determine how much of the widespread damage was caused by twisters. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said the storms were “as bad or worse than anything we’ve seen in a decade.” (Anderson and Reeves, 4/13)
Reuters: 'Everything's Gone': Tornadoes Rip U.S. South, Kill At Least 26
At least 11 people were killed in Mississippi, eight in South Carolina, six in Georgia and one in Arkansas in the storms, local media and state officials reported. Five of the people who were killed in Georgia were in two Murray County mobile home parks that were leveled as tornadoes rolled through the area, Murray County Fire Chief Dewayne Bain told a Fox News affiliate in the region. (O'Brien, 4/13)
The Washington Post: After Tornadoes Batter The South, Residents Question How To Rebuild Amid Coronavirus Threat
In almost all of the hardest-hit communities, covid-19 — the disease caused by the novel coronavirus — has forced people to isolate indoors, packed hospitals and stressed the emergency workers who are the first to respond to a natural disaster. The overlapping crises have made responding to both a dangerous gambit, now and in the months to come. How do you get people to shelter-in-place when hundreds of homes are damaged or destroyed? (Montgomery, Webster, Wootson and Sellers, 4/13)
ProPublica: Climate Change Won’t Stop For The Coronavirus Pandemic
Two and a half years ago Hurricane Maria ripped open homes across the southern Puerto Rican city of Ponce, destroying the rickety electrical grid and sending thousands of people into shelters or onto the streets. People were still rebuilding when, in January, a devastating earthquake jolted the island’s southern coast. Afraid of collapsing walls and showering concrete, people moved back outdoors, where they still spend cool, wet nights under blue tarps strung to poles and tied to cars packed with coolers and lawn chairs. (Lustgarten, 4/13)
