Some reports say 9 dead. I saw somewhere that 72 was the max number of tornadoes within a short time period. Anyone know if these tornadoes are setting a record?

  • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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    1 month ago

    The storm knocked out power to more than 3 million customers, flooded barrier islands, tore the roof off a baseball stadium and toppled a construction crane.

    Holy shit, 3 million customers! This is horrible for the companies, will they be ok?

    • BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      I think customers, clients, or accounts is a fair term in this instance. Houses, apartments, condos, businesses, etc. likely contain more than one person. 3 million structures of some form or function are without electricity which could easily have effects on twice that amount of people

      • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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        1 month ago

        ‘Families’ works the exact same, and it doesn’t downgrade them to sources of money.

        • BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee
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          1 month ago

          Multiple people living in a house or apartment may not be related or in a relationship that would generally be considered a family. Shops, municipal buildings, fire stations, offices, and police stations certainly aren’t families. It’s not reductive, it’s generalizing a large and diverse population to their qualities that are common and relevant to the subject being discussed

        • brygphilomena@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Families wouldn’t include the commercial buildings.

          They could split the number and say residences and businesses separately. Or combine them and say customers. Especially since that number likely is reported by the power company itself and the company will use customer and everyone else will just be quoting them.

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 month ago

      It’s a way of representing how many houses, buildings, and apartments lost power, since 5 people might live in a house, but that’s only one customer.

    • underwire212@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      I know, that’s the first thing I thought of too. Someone should open a Kickstarter so we can help replace the lost revenue because of this. I feel so bad for the investors ☹️.

    • signalsayge@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      As someone currently experiencing power loss in Tampa, i can state that I am not a company. Neither is my mom, who is also a customer of Tampa Electric, a family. Your entire comment thread on here is grabbing at an accurate statement and trying to turn it into something it’s not.

      I think that, as someone that is directly affected, your comments are more insulting than the article.

      • underwire212@lemm.ee
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        1 month ago

        As someone who is a customer at over 50 different companies, I too get offended when someone tries to refer to me as a person instead of a customer.

        • signalsayge@lemm.ee
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          1 month ago

          Would you prefer the reporter refer to you as a family, company, or building…

          The point being made here is that customer is the best noun that the English language has for a reporter to talk about a companies customers. This was never about an electric company referring to people. This is all some made up BS that is completely off topic to the article.

          What should the AP have called all the customers of the utility companies other than customers?