My prayers go out to the victims. This makes my current life problems seem trivial.

Same for me.

"Casualties will most likely be in the many hundreds to thousands." So far the death toll is 24, although that will probably climb as search efforts contine.
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This article really exasperates me. It mentions mostly the gawkers--and some "looters"--who have descended on the devastation in Moore. These folks drive in from distant places to take a look and spend an afternoon.

*sigh* But what can we expect from people who are groomed on theme parks, blockbuster Hollywood movies, Facebook, Instagram, spectacle and celebrity gossip 24/7? It really just makes me shake my head. Actually, the media's presence fuels a lot of it, too.

When I was living in Manhattan on 9/11, I felt no need to go down to Ground Zero to check out the damage. Among other things, it was too sad and macabre to lay eyes on that place, and people had a job to do down there and I didn't want to get in the way. Even on the road, I don't rubberneck at accident scenes. I just want to get through safely and past the accident.

Well this is absurd......

"Moore Mayor Glen Lewis said he will propose an ordinance in the next couple of days at the Moore City Council that would modify building codes to require the construction of reinforced shelters in every new home."

I am afraid I don't follow you. Given their tornadic history, it seems fairly reasonable. I just listened this morning to a piece on NPR, a discussion with a research meteorologist, who opined that any single piece of real estate was likely to be struck by a tornado once in 4,000 years. Your odds are therefore pretty good. Despite these odds, this gentleman paid an extra $2000 to incorporate a reinforced concrete shelter into an addition to his residence.

If I were purchasing real estate in Tornado Alley, a good shelter would be a definite plus.

Would a concrete room integrated with a concrete foundation do the trick? If so, that seems easy enough. By the way, I heard basements weren't common in this town because the land is mostly rock, or whatever, and so it's difficult (expensive) to dig a hole that big without making the house too expensive.

Using those stats, if you live there for 30 years in one house, your house has a 30 in 4,000 chance of being struck by a Tornado. With those odds, I'd definitely spend some money on a reinforced room! Plus, home insurance would probably go down.

Choosing to install a storm shelter in ones private home is reasonable (and prudent).
Being forced to do so by a bureaucrat is absurd.

Building codes "force" us to do all sort of costly things,like anchoring walls to foundations in fairly precise ways, and all kinds of things in plumbing and electrical. I would regard construction of a safe room as a reasonable requirement in that particular neck of the woods.

Technically, the mayor is probably an elected official, not a bureaucrat. If the citizens don't care for his concepts, they can send him packing.......

The rebar in the room walls needs to be tied carefully to the foundation metal, as well as the rebar in the ceiling. Wind forces and debris impacts are going to pull (tension) the shelter off the foundation otherwise.


I believe it's clay. But the bigger issue is that the water table is very high and so it's hard to get water out of the shelter.

It appears that about a quarter of the Moore victims *drowned* in a basement that flooded.


That's easy to check - does anyone have a policy that offers a discount if there's a shelter?

Not everyone can afford to protect against every eventuality, and the alternative (apartment, etc) may be no safer.


That's for any tornado. For one like this probably much longer than once in 10,00 years, maybe once in 50,000. A time scale that long exposes other risks!


Homes there are not bubble-priced. You're looking at likely a 5% price increase, and more if ADA-compliance is needed or you want it big enough to stand up in. Much more if it's supposed to protect against an EF5 with debris impacts.

$5,000 is a lot of money for some people when it is very unlikely to ever make a difference.