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.
Roofs, walls, plumbing, electrical systems, etc are all in active use every moment a home is occupied from the moment it is built, tornados are statistically rare events with the odds of a fatal event being even greater.
The U.S. averages 80 tornado fatalities per year, while we average over 3,500 non-boating related drownings. Would you regard the government mandated wearing of life jackets within 100ft of any lake, pond, pool, hot tub, or bathtub reasonable?
Life jacket = $25
Storm shelter = $5,000-10,000+
BTW, ironically the 9 children who died at the school on Monday actually survived the tornado, they drowned when the federally mandated fire sprinkler feed main broke and flooded the basement. So in a twisted way a regulation actually caused their death. I'm not advocating the removal of sprinkler systems, just trying to impart some reality. We do not need more emotion based bureaucracy/laws in our private lives.
Technically, the mayor is probably an elected official, not a bureaucrat
Technically (and by very definition), because one is elected does not negate them from being a bureaucrat.
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