The front page article of the New York Times online today was At Least 48 Dead In Storms Across 4 States.

According to the article, a series of tornadoes and heavy rainstorms hit some southern states today. The area hit by the tornados was in the southeast – Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Arkansas. The storms destroyed a lot of property, and as well as killing 48 people and injuring about 100 more. An Tennessee police chief said it looked like a “war zone.”

These stories of natural disasters – like the forest fires in the western states, and Hurricane Katrina a few years ago – seem to be increasingly common. It’s a scary reminder that no matter how developed our country becomes, we still live here at the mercy of mother nature. On the other hand, you can compare the death tolls here to those from the tsunami in Southeast Asia and earthquakes in South Asia.

We’re lucky that we can use technology to reduce the impact of these disasters, but we still can’t eliminate them altogether.