Tornado Damaged Albertville Schools Forced to Reopen

“It’s ridiculous you can’t do that in Alabama; but we’ll do what they tell us to do.”

– Ric Ayer, Albertville City Schools Superintendent

In shocking news, Albertville City Schools – devastated by a recent tornado – will be forced to reopen next week, and WILL NOT be able to obtain a student attendance waiver for the five days they were closed this week because of the damage.

Albertville City School Superintendent Ric Ayer said that Alabama state law neither allows for any process – however extraordinary circumstances may be – to waive the 180 day scholastic year, which is mandated by law. Superintendent Ayer said

Tornado rips severe damage through Albertville, Alabama.

!*! – UPDATED – Tuesday, 27 April 2010, with aerial pics by Eric Shultz, Photographer, Huntsville Times – UPDATED – !*!

Saturday evening, April 24, 2010, around 9:30PM CST, a F3 category tornado twisted its way through the rural north Alabama community of Albertville, Alabama in Marshall County. Ironically, it was on the centennial-second anniversary of a 1908 tornado that devastated the town, nearly wiping it from the map.

Fortunately, though no lives were lost, there were about three dozen injuries reported, some severe, with one transported to another larger hospital facility out of the area.

Damage was severe, wreaking havoc and destruction in Albertville and the smaller, nearby community of Geraldine. Damage was so severe, that Albertville schools will be closed for this week,

“I am a Blue Dog Democrat. I must align myself with the Republican Party.”

“I am a Blue Dog Democrat. I must align myself with the Republican Party.” – Parker Griffith, M.D., Representative, Alabama 5th congressional district

By now, the news of Alabama Congressional Representative Parker Griffith’s decision to divorce himself from the party that elected him and adulterate with Republicans, is all over the Internet. Doubtless, it will be mentioned on teevee talk shows, and their even more mindless radio counterparts. The Tennessee Valley is definitely abuzz with the news.

But, it will be in passing.

That’s “passing, ” as in “passing gas,” or “passing stool.”

And that’s exactly what it is – Parker Griffith’s passing.

He will pass from this life, into political oblivion. Having made his move, he has damaged the 5th Congressional District and effectively put a knife into the aorta – the main blood vessel – of everything in the district for which he previously worked, including most notably, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the Army’s Redstone Arsenal.

The local newspaper in the seat of his district,