Kentucky, tornado
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The Jackson, Kentucky, weather service office recently cut overnight staff but meteorologists were called in to handle the deadly tornado outbreak.
The National Weather Service has confirmed that a powerful EF-4 tornado tore through southern Kentucky on Friday night, devastating communities across multiple counties.
Additionally, there was no evidence that tornado sirens in the area had been deactivated by the Trump administration's budget cuts — if there was, the people affected by the storm certainly would have noted that fact in interviews.
According to NWS, the damage survey found two brief EF1 tornadoes occurred in the early morning hours of May 20. The first tornado impacted the north side of Cape Girardeau, Missouri. It touched down at the Cape Splash Aquatic Center at 1:08 a.m., causing some damage to the facility.
3don MSN
The Jackson, Kentucky, office is one of at least four such facilities across the country that is so short-staffed that it is no longer routinely operating 24/7.
Gov. Andy Beshear praised the Trump administration’s response to a deadly tornado in his state, even as he worried about cuts at NWS.
The National Weather Service has finished its survey of the deadly tornado that ripped through southeastern Kentucky last week.
Did alerts go out? What type of alerts did people receive? National Weather Service and others have said the Jackson office was staffed Friday night despite staffing shortages.
States like Kentucky, along with several that stretch from Texas to Iowa, remain at risk of severe conditions.