Why Bloomberg (Was) Lost

Over the past week, I’ve received a number of e-mails from readers wondering where various articles I normally write are. Unfortunately, the answer is that the articles have been delayed by circumstances far beyond my control.

On Sunday night, March 12, a series of nasty storms swept across the Midwest, spawning a number of tornadoes. My house was directly in the path of one of those tornadoes. (The picture above was not the tornado in question – it was nighttime when this tornado hit, and all the power was knocked out, so to my knowledge there really aren’t any pictures of “my” tornado.)

Thankfully, living in the Midwest my entire life taught me what to do when such weather approaches. I will admit that I had grown a bit jaded when it came to tornado warnings, as none had ever truly come close. Even as the Weather Channel described tornadoes heading directly towards us, I didn’t really think it would come that close. However, I went through the motions and got my family into our basement. Still, I ran upstairs several times to bring back various items – cell phones, a battery-operated TV, etc. On one trip upstairs, I heard the “freight train” sound I’d heard described as the noise generated by a nearby tornado. When I felt my ears pop from the change in air pressure, I knew this was not a drill.

The tornado came and went, as did the sounds of high winds and flying items thumping off the house. When all was said and done, everybody was okay, but the damage caused to the town and neighboring communities was shocking to view up close and in person.

I was one of the relatively lucky ones. My house was damaged and will need repairs, but it is definitely habitable. Others lost their homes and businesses – everything they owned. To see examples of just some of the damage, you can go to websites for the local newspaper and one local radio station.

Due to the extent of the damage, some people are still without power a full week after the storm. My power came back two days later, but I am still without the ability to connect to the internet (this article is being posted from a location with public Web access). Thus, the excellent corps of associate and assistant editors here at the RealityNewsOnline Family of Websites – Mike DeGeorge, Betsy Wasser, Jenn Brasler, and Sandy Lamparello – has been keeping everything going. But if the worst thing that happened to me out of this storm was loss of internet for a while, I consider myself extremely lucky.

Two tornadoes actually made their way through my town that night. While my immediate area was mostly spared – it was “only” rated an F1 at the time – the twisters showed increased power in other areas. I encourage anybody who is moved by the pictures shown on the websites listed above to donate to the American Red Cross. If you want to be sure your money goes specifically to those most in need, you can call Contact Ministries at 217-753-3939 and ask how to donate to the East Side Tornado Relief Fund. A large portion of the RealityNewsOnline Family of Websites advertising income from this month has already been donated to both of these charities.

So for a while, the “Why [somebody] Lost” articles for The Apprentice and American Idol were themselves “lost.” But I will catch up as I can. Still, I find myself in the ironic position of needing to use RealityNewsOnline for the same reasons many of you do – for summaries of shows I was unable to watch. Luckily, we have assembled the best writers and editors on the Web.

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com.

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