Tornados, sometimes referred to as twisters,¹ are powerful cyclonic storms that look like someone pulled the plug on some ancient sky-god's bathtub. Although they occur in many places on Earth, they're usually associated in the public's thoughts with the American midwestern states, where they seem to have a particular propensity for destroying trailer parks²

There is a particular formula for media coverage of tornados in the United States: you first are shown footage of the tornado itself, if anyone took any; if not, they show file footage of any old tornado. Next you're briefly shown a map, followed by aerial footage of the "swath of destruction".³ Usually, this will show the wreckage of a trailer or mobile-home park. Next, there will be interviews with the unfortunate victims. A female victim is usually shown first, weeping over the wreckage of her home, this will be followed by a male victim who will say one of a stock series of phrases either referring to his family praying for protection during the storm or to their being thankful that they survived. Sometimes the otherwise stoic male will be allowed to just reach the edge of tears before the camera cuts away

Finally, the newscaster at the scene will close with some philosophic thoughts on how just hours before this was a thriving mobile-home or trailer park, and is now destroyed. But now the process of rebuilding begins. He or she will close with positive comments about the strength of the local community, their faith in god, and so forth.

This style of coverage is so widespread and invariant that it seems to be the product of some sort of Covering Disasters class in journalism school. Certainly it's common enough that it's a wonder local news stations bother to actually send news crews out to a the tornadoes which occur in their area, instead of covering them by reusing old footage.

Hmm, come to think of it...