1000501 Wicked Spring Weather

Wicked Spring Weather

Severe storm systems sweep across the south-central region of the U.S.

By Vickie An

A deadly storm system continued to sweep through the nation's midsection on Tuesday night and early Wednesday, causing widespread destruction and injuries in several states. Pounding rain, flash flooding and strong winds damaged dozens of homes and toppled trees. The violent storm killed 173 people across five states.

This round of wild weather comes just one day after a powerful storm system killed 11 people in Arkansas and Mississippi. On Monday, a tornado ripped through the town of Vilonia, Arkansas, in Faulkner County. The twister flattened homes, sent cars flying and tore down power lines. "It snapped overhead poles like they were toothpicks," said Faulkner County spokesman Stephan Hawks. "It was a heck of a little tornado."

A Season of Twisters

Much of the South was still struggling to pick up the pieces caused by flooding and earlier twisters when the latest series of storms struck on Tuesday. According to the Weather Channel, more than 290 confirmed tornadoes—and counting—have touched down in the U.S. in April. The number shatters the previous record, set in 1974, of 267 tornadoes in the same month.

The National Weather Service issued several tornado warnings in the region on Tuesday. Officials in Alabama reported two suspected tornadoes in Marshall County, near Birmingham. According to the National Weather Service in Fort Worth, Texas, at least one twister had hit between the small towns of Edom and Van, in East Texas.

"You could see lumber and stuff swirling in it," said resident Rhonda Modesitt, 45. She and her 15-year-old son had watched the tornado spin toward their apartment. "You could hear it coming through and then it got really still."

On April 22, a twister slammed Lambert Airport in St. Louis, Missouri, causing severe damage and chaos. The airport was closed after the tornado hit, but is now operating at near full capacity again. It was one of five twisters to hit Eastern Missouri on Friday.

The storm system is set to head east across the nation this week, affecting states from New York to Georgia.

Max-I knew that the weather is very bad in America right now. Many tornados and twisters swept through America and also killed a lot of people. I wonder why did this happen? Maybe it’s because of the hot weather of America. The storm started at a few days ago, and it blew everything where the tornado was, damaged a lot of homes and other things. At that time, it rained very hard, and there is lightning and floods too. After the storm, another twister came to America and also did the same thing with the storm. I know that every year, many tornados and twisters will sweep through America, and cause a lot of damage. Sometimes, the damage from the last twister hasn’t fixed, but there is already another twister which came to America. I think there are many twisters in America this month.

1000430 Cheng Yen

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Cheng Yen

By TIME Staff Monday, Apr. 04, 2011

Age: 73
Occupation: Buddhist nun and philanthropist
Previous TIME 100 appearances: 0

Cheng Yen is known as the Chinese world's Mother Teresa. She runs the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, one of Asia's largest charities. Earthquakes, floods, typhoons, famine, tsunamis, you name it — Tzu Chi people are there dispensing food, blankets and warm clothing (as they have done recently in Japan), and also committing long-term by rebuilding villages, establishing clinics and schools and providing scholarships to needy students. The foundation is based in Hualien on Taiwan's east coast, but has chapters worldwide. Cheng Yen's reputation is such that the group is allowed everywhere, even into hermetic North Korea and conflict zones like Afghanistan. Tzu Chi is well funded by millions of donors, including a few tycoons who want her blessing, but there has never been any hint of impropriety.

Max-Cheng Yen is one of the most kindhearted people in Taiwan. Because of her father died suddenly when she was about twenty years old, she started to contact with Buddhism. After that, she went to Hualien to study Buddhism, and finally became a Buddhist nun. She founded Buddhism Tzu Chi Foundation, and now the foundation is already forty-five years old. When the foundation was founded, not many people know it, so they can only do things like donating money to help some people. However, after the foundation spread to other places of Taiwan, many more people become members of Tzu Chi, most of them had a bad life on the past and wanted to join Tzu Chi for the rest of their lives. In the past few years, the foundation started to help other countries when they met some disasters, they gave some supplies to the countries, and also donated money to them. So the Tzu Chi Foundation’s founder, Cheng Yen, is really a great Buddhist!