Originally Posted By: RedGreen
Originally Posted By: hikermor
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.


Originally Posted By: hikermor
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.


Not that accuracy means much in a discussion such as this but today the medical examiner confirmed that the children died of mechanical asphyxiation, not drowning. Most likely they lost their lives when debris fell on them and crushed the breath from them. Not a broken sprinkler main, and not the twisted machinations of an unfeeling self-interested Weberian bureaucracy. They were in the path of a tornado, one moment alive and the next they were gone. Children. I find it sorta sad that you can join them in the same sentence with the effects of bureaucracy, when they are not even laid to rest today. Please give it a rest.