Gov. Polis snubbed Douglas County where a tornado ripped through six miles of Highlands Ranch on Thursday in his disaster emergency declaration that only included Lincoln, Elbert, El Paso, and Washington Counties.
It was an EF-1 tornado. How did Polis and his staff miss that news?
It’s unclear why Polis would just skip Douglas County. After all, he lost to Heidi Ganahl in last year’s election to all the other counties in which he declared weather-related emergencies.
Eastern Colorado was at risk for large hail, gusty winds and isolated tornadoes. At least one confirmed tornado touched down, causing damage in the Highlands Ranch area as storms moved east.
Douglas County is not included in this declaration by Polis. But the tornado today touched down in Douglas County – Highlands Ranch specifically.
Why is @jaredpolis ignoring one of Colorado’s most populated – and conservative – counties? #copoliticshttps://t.co/z6WBzdbB0C
— Kristi Burton Brown (@KBBColorado) June 23, 2023
Kyle Clark of 9News told his Twitter followers the emergency declaration was only for Wednesday’s storms, which was not reported in any of the media coverage we saw. Presuming that’s true, it’s been 24 hours since the tornado struck, and still no disaster declaration.
But Clark might be right, maybe it’s not political discrimination on Polis’s part so much as sheer incompetence.
The Twitter trolls think it’s funny and believe Douglas County had it coming because they’re mostly conservatives who don’t believe the world will end next week because of climate change.
The first recorded tornado in the U.S. was in July of 1643, nearly 400 years before we blamed every manner of weather on climate change.
Please make a note of it.
Five years ago Greta Thunberg tweeted that
“climate change will wipe out all of humanity unless we stop using fossil fuels over the next five years.”
The tweet is now deleted.https://t.co/qLzZxJDJJG pic.twitter.com/Wfnjkv2wS5
— Bjorn Lomborg (@BjornLomborg) June 21, 2023