If any of y'all are inclined to tweet our chapter's address and list of stuff we want, please add: Gloves (heavy duty)
Large black trash bags (contractor grade)
Shovels
Toiletries
Sunscreen
Dust Masks
Boots

Moore has been hit hard so many times - 1999, 2003, 2010, and now this. The meteorologists here in Tulsa are reporting that if you live in Moore, you just have to build a storm shelter. Nothing above ground will do.

Question - Why don't these Midwestern schools build basements?

I grew up in rural Illinois, where we have a lot of tornado warnings every year. My high school didn't have anywhere safe for us to go during tornado warnings - we all lined up in the hallway, where of course there were lots of windows, etc. I was always shocked at the procedures.

Glad to hear you're alright, Kevin. Prayers to everyone involved.

I can't speak for the entire mid-west, but having grown up in Texas our soil was not conducive to having basements. My guess is that may play a role elsewhere.

That is the case here as well. Basements mean that you're going to likely have leaks and mold and other things you wouldn't want if you're already running your school district on a shoestring budget.

We do have storm shelters for houses which are prefab concrete structures which are buried or partially buried.

Interesting, thank you for the info.

I wonder if they could build storm shelters for schools, especially after what happened today. How heartbreaking.

Unfortunately, this school did everything right. Protocol is to go to a central room with strong walls and make sure the students are covered up to shield from falling debris. This tornado was an F5, maybe setting some serious wind speed records.

Blaming the school for inadequate preparation or being built insufficiently is somewhat on the level of blaming a school for not being prepared for a meteorite. (although admittedly, this town has had some bad luck with storms!)

Oh, I completely agree. I was just wondering if there was a way that could prevent these tragedies in the future. I'm sure everyone involved did everything they could do, considering the circumstances. :(

We don't get tornadoes in the PacNW, so they terrify me. It just seems there's no real way to protect yourself or your possessions from one if you just happen to have bad luck. If this town, Moore, has been devastated so many times in recent years by tornadoes, why do people continue to build there? Shelters are good - life isn't replaceable, after all - but who would want to place their home and family at risk?

It's usually not that bad. Most of the time, you'll be sitting on your front porch watching the thing yelling "look at that!"

I don't know why Moore keeps getting hit. There's no good reason for it. We're getting very good at warning people about these things. We always now know exactly where we need to take cover and where to evacuate--and these storms form in an hour or so and proceed in a general direction with very little warning.

Most of us in OK will never be hit by one of these storms and we're pretty good at taking appropriate precautions. Every once in awhile though, there's one of these.

Tulsans at least are fairly blase about tornadoes, but Tulsa also has a fairly miraculous record of not getting hit by them (something about the river/dam combination, apparently? Not a scientist). I've definitely stood on my porch to check out the wall cloud, but I also head to my parents' house with the cat carrier fairly frequently (their house has a basement. And better beer). Tonight I went out for a run around the time we were supposed to get hit. There was some pretty rockin' wind and heavy rain but only for 15 minutes or so. Brought the temp down a bit.

Tornadoes scare me like nothing else. Having chosen to move to the Midwest for school from the Northeast, I can take anything aside from a tornado. Give me a hurricane, an earthquake, a blizzard, or basically anything but a tornado and I'll get a little twitchy but nothing on the level of absolute terror I feel at the slightest mention of a tornado. Like maconmagnolia (I think?) I also go to school in Missouri and I'm still shocked at how buildings don't have basements/storm shelters and that it was never once covered exactly what to do during a tornado watch/warnig/emergency. None of the dorms have basements, though some of the classrooms do, and the only one time anyone has ever actively encouraged a response to the tornado sirens was when it was a student forcibly herded about 30 others into the basement of a building when the warnings went off during an evening club meeting. We're lucky we haven't been hit yet (though north St. Louis county was during once this past semester), though I'm honestly terrified as this system continues moving toward school. I know so many people with apartment leases who are staying there or who are on campus taking classes for the summer and I'm going to be glued to the news/internet hoping they're okay over the next 48 hours.

Prayers for everyone in Oklahoma and everyone else in the path of this massive storm system :(

I don't think I can watch the coverage anymore. It's too heartbreaking.

So some good news... the death toll was revised down to 24. Sigma Nu from UCO and OU are sending out volunteers to work with the Red Cross to assist in relief efforts. One of my alumnus brothers who works for the Regional Food Bank recently put a picture up on FB which shows the Cox Convention Center's court (roughly the size of a basketball arena) filled with tall boxes of food donations ready to be disbursed to survivors.

I know at least one person, an OU Sigma Nu who lives in Norman who just showed up to help who ended up working through the night.

Aside from the previously mentioned ways to help:

Text STORM to 80888 for The Salvation Army USA.
Text REDCROSS to 90999 $10 donations, or
FOOD to 32333 for Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma.

Tornadoes are so frightening because there is so little, if any, warning. At least with the hurricanes, we have days notice to prepare.

My heart goes out to everyone in OK. Thanks for the donation info.