First Ice Storm Ever in Tennessee

I was watching the NBC Nightly News broadcast tonight. You know the same network and program made famous or infamous more accurately by the self-acknowledged heroics of now suspended anchor Brian Williams.

One of the big stories on the show focused on an ice storm that has crippled Tennessee with devastating power outages and countless downed trees and power lines. But to hear the NBC folks tell it… it was almost unheard of. To listen to the NBC report you’d think there had never been an ice storm ever recorded in Tennessee. It was comical and embarrassing at the same time. It is just more evidence that the Main Stream Media is completely out of touch with reality or completely incompetent- but there really isn’t any middle ground. Either way it’s inexcusable.

How rare are such events in Tennessee? Well there have been many weather related emergencies in the last few decades not only in the Volunteer State but in every state. Blizzards, ice storms and floods have been going on since time began. There have also been locusts, tornados and earthquakes. You see mankind has been plagued by plagues since there have been people.

In fact according to a Federal Emergency Management Agency database Tennessee has declared a major disaster 53 times since 1953 before Saturday.

Five of those past disasters were winter storm-related, according to the database.

Getting back to the facts about cold weather that has also showed up every winter since I was born: bitter temperatures and ice, snow and heavy winds are believed to have played a role in at least 37 deaths from Mississippi to Kentucky and Ohio, with 21 deaths in Tennessee. More than half of those deaths were directly related to cold weather and hypothermia. Sad? Yes, but nothing new.