Vox Sentences - Deadly tornadoes in Kentucky

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The recovery from devastating storms in Kentucky will take months; Vice President Kamala Harris announces private investments aimed at curbing immigration from Central American countries.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Jariel Arvin.

The recovery from Kentucky's deadly tornadoes could take months

Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images

• Rescue and recovery efforts are ongoing after tornadoes left dozens in Kentucky dead and more than 100 missing. ”It may be weeks before we have final counts on both deaths and levels of destruction,” Gov. Andy Beshear said on Monday. [CNN]
• At least six states saw tornadoes over the weekend. Entire neighborhoods in Kentucky were destroyed; an Arkansas nursing home and an Amazon facility in Illinois were also impacted. [NBC / Chantal Da Silva, Elisha Fieldstadt, and Tim Fitzsimons]
• Roughly 300 members of the National Guard are assisting survivors on the ground in Kentucky. President Joe Biden will visit the state Wednesday to tour the destruction. [Washington Post / Amy Wang]
• Officials said thousands of Kentuckians could be forced to go weeks or longer without heat, water, and electricity; as of Monday, 26,000 homes and businesses were still without electricity, 10,000 without water, and thousands more have been advised to boil water for safety. [AP / Bruce Schreiner and Claire Galofaro]
• President Biden has asked the Environmental Protection Agency to determine any links between the tornadoes and climate change. However, limitations in data, climate modeling, and scientific understanding of how tornadoes form could make the task quite difficult. [NPR/ Rachel Treisman]

VP Harris announces private investment to curb undocumented immigration from Central America

• US Vice President Kamala Harris announced on Monday $1.2 billion in private investments since May for Central American countries as part of her ongoing efforts to reduce undocumented immigration from South and Central American countries. [Reuters / Nandita Bose]
• The announcement includes new investments in the region from major companies, including $190 million from Pepsi to update its manufacturing plants and $150 million from global food corporation Cargill to improve farmer livelihoods. The money will go to Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. [Washington Post / John Wagner]
• President Biden tapped Harris to reduce the surging numbers of migrants at the US-Mexico border by addressing the “root causes,” which include climate change, lack of economic opportunity, and violence. [LA Times / Noah Bierman]
• The administration’s strategy includes improving economic opportunities and security, fighting corruption and violence, and promoting human rights, all of which will take time to implement. [CNN/ Jasmine Wright and Priscilla Alvarez]

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One person in the UK has died from the omicron variant of Covid-19, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Monday, while urging everyone to get fully protected by getting booster shots. [Washington Post / Karla Adam and William Booth]

• Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, used personal devices and email accounts to conduct official White House business, according to a report from the committee investigating the January 6 insurrection. [Business Insider / Eliza Relman]
• Vicente Fernández, the Grammy Award-winning “king of traditional Ranchera music,” which captured life in rural Mexico, died Sunday Morning. He was 81. [NYT / Christine Chung]
• Tesla CEO Elon Musk is Time magazine’s person of the year. [Time / Molly Ball , Jeffrey Kluger, and Alejandro De La Garza]

“This is going to be our new normal, and the effects that we’re seeing from climate change are the crisis of our generation. We’ll continue to work on helping to reduce the impacts, but we’re also prepared to respond to any community that gets impacted by one of these severe events.”

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administrator Deanne Criswell describes how the agency is ready to help those recovering from disasters.

8 minutes, 24 seconds. That’s the average amount of warning time people get before a tornado touches down. To do better, and to understand tornadoes, scientists need to confront more of these storms, head-on. [Spotify]

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