Birmingham Tornado - Appeal As you are all probably aware, a seriously devastating tornado hit parts of south Birmingham recently. News of the disaster was swiftly carried to the civilised world by pay-as-you go SMS messages. Victims were seen wandering around aimlessly muttering 'blooooodyell' and 'yourite arkid?'. The tornado decimated the area causing several pounds worth of damage. Many priceless collections of mementos from the Spanish Costas and Balearics were damaged beyond repair. Historic Ford Sierras and Nissan Bluebirds were blown off there brick plinths. A large number of 3 series BMW's suffered alloy wheels damage and a quantity of Renault Clio's had their tinted windows blown out. Many locals were woken well before their giro arrived. Without warning, Asian residents were lifted off the ground and transported through the air, their saris and 'nightshirts' acting as parachutes as the vortex carried them over rooftops into adjacent roads. One resident, Sharon Knowles, a 15yr old single mother of seven said "It was such a shock, my little Beyonce came running into my bedroom crying. My youngest two, Azif and Delbert slept through it all. I was still shaking when I was watching 'Trisha' the next morning." Another resident, Community worker Royston Akimose, 38, said "I was 'avin' a meetin' wiv a business associate, the sky went dark an de next fing I know, me ganj is blown all over 'is Impreza!" Apparently though, looting and car crime did carry on as normal. The British Red Cross has so far managed to ship 4,000 crates of Sunny Delight to the area to help the stricken locals. Rescue workers are still searching through the rubble and have found large quantities of personal belongings, which include benefit books, jewellery from Elizabeth Duke at Argos and bone china from Pound Stretcher. How Can You Help? This appeal is to raise money for food and clothing parcels for those unfortunate enough to be caught up in the disaster. Clothing is most sought after, items needed include: Fila or Burberry baseball caps Kappa tracksuit tops (his & hers) Von Dutch t-Shirts White sports socks Rockport boots Any large gold plated accessories Food parcels may be harder to come by but are needed all the same. Required foodstuffs include microwave meals, tins of baked beans, ice cream, and bottles of Smirnoff Ice. 22p buys a biro for filling in the compensation forms: 2.00 buys fish, chips & blue fizzy drinks for a family of 9 and 5.00 will pay for a packet of B&H and a lighter to calm the nerves of those affected. Please do not send tents for shelter, as the sight of posh housing is unfair on the population in neighbouring areas.
FYI, for those who didn't know about the tornado (like myself), http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_midlands/4727107.stm
LOL Josh. I forgot this probably hadn't made the news outside the UK. T3-4's are extremely rare in the UK. I used to live in the area when I was a student ... but it has gone downhill since I moved out PS A "giro" is a money order cashable at a post office that is sent in the mail to pay welfare benefits.
I never hear about tornadoes outside of the U.S. I guess I thought it was a unique weather phenomenon here. Mirelly...please tell me this was a typo...
We get a few dozen tornadoes per year that are worth mentioning although one that tracks a couple of miles of devestation through a major city is a once in a lifetime event (so far anyway ) The appeal spoof I posted this morning came in my overnight email from a Brummie (a native of Birmingham) who has a nicely warped sense of humor. I thought it was worth sharing for my fellow Brits benefit because it is a very ironic look at the demogrpahy of that affected area and anyway no-one was killed. The area is cram-packed with tiny Victorian working class terraced housing which held up pretty well against a T3-4 twister ... though trees and roofs and cars were thrown about and a lot of windows were sucked out but damage can be fixed. It's lot harder to put life back into a corpse. As far as I know there are no 15yr old single mothers of seven in Birmingham ... most of them are in Liverpool (Oh dear I bet I've started a civil war now )
*snort* Now that I've consumed my morning requirement for caffeine...of course it's a spoof! The burberry caps should have made it obvious even half asleep. CHAV world, huh?
My mum (who is a social worker I might add) sent me a similar email about a suburb of ill repute in Western Australia, so fortunately I had no confusion over the facts of Mirellies post . I never hear about tornadoes outside of the U.S. I guess I thought it was a unique weather phenomenon here. Even here in Australia we have tornado's, had one recently in fact, because I live in a country town, we have these huge aerials that sit on top of our houses, well, mine ain't there no more, thank goodness I had insurance and I now have a pretty satellite dish instead . Mostly we have cyclones though, tornadoes are rare.
Geeze!! I had to go back and look to see where the Tornado was. I thought I was reading about a trailer court here in rural NC!! I was wondering where I was when the storm blew through.
Mirelly, did you mean for us to read a story about a 15 year old girl with HIV? That's the story I got when I clicked your link. As for tornadoes, of course they happen everywhere. Any natural phenomenon can happen at any place if the conditions are right. We even had a (tiny) earthquake in Minneapolis about 10 years ago. But tornadoes do seem more common in the US for some reason. I wonder if it's all the large open spaces. They don't seem to hit larger cities very often, for example. But there was that one in Houston that one time ... I think again it depends on conditions.
Yeah it was a bit lazy of me not to explain but I had a cat on my lap and was surfing one handed and found the news items about a 15 year old with HIV and I thought "yikes" !!! Much too close to the tornado appeal spoof.
They don't mention if she had consensual sex with that older man. He should be in jail if he's the one that infected her IMHO. I think knowingly infecting someone with a deadly disease should be charged as murder. How many cats do you have?
