<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Oklahoma tornado death toll falls to 24, officials tell NBC News. People may have been counted twice in initial chaos.</p>— TODAY(@todayshow) <a href="https://twitter.com/todayshow/status/336838776343109637">May 21, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50147264n Survivor finds her dog while being interviewed. So heartwarming.
My sister lives in Moore and used to work at one of the schools that got flattened, it sounds like she'll be looking for a job elsewhere now. Two F5s hit the same path in Moore in the 90s and now this one. I think there has to be something geographically that causes massive tornadoes to constantly hit the same spot.
Chesapeake Energy donate $1 Million to relief efforts Devon Energy has donated $2.5 Million Kevin Durant donated $1 Million. These are the big ones I have heard of so far. I heard about Chesapeake at lunch today, got an email from our CEO here at Devon announcing ours. And my brother just texted me about Kevin Durants. A lot more will be sure to come, but as is this is a great start just from 3 donations.
Remember guys, you can donate $10 to red cross relief efforts by texting REDCROSS to 90999. It's the least we can all do.
That was pretty emotional. I'm so happy she found her dog in all that devastation. I had to put on my man face at work watching it holding back. I wanted to cry, though, because if anyone found their pet after experiencing that devastation...it is a miracle. I thought of the time I once got in the tub with my two full grown Rhodesian Ridgebacks under a tornado warning wondering how the hell I'm going to hang on to two full grown dogs.
Home Depot in Moore taking in injured/lost pets http://twitchy.com/2013/05/21/aweso...s-doors-to-lost-and-injured-pets-vine-videos/ Corporations are awesome.
No, they are a business and they have different rules. Plus, there are "people" just like you and me who aren't even lifting a finger.
Not all of them. It varies by area. As asinine as it seems in light of the most recent tragedies, it's probably very political as spending on public infrastructure is a highly charged topic...you can draw your own conclusions based on the political climate of these states (trying to keep politics out of this thread):
Unfortunately they do not. Even in Moore where this tragedy occured, their schools had been majorly damaged in the 1999 tornado that went through the same town. The difference was that school was no in session when that one went through.
I went to school in the OKC suburb of Bethany, about 25-30 minutes away. The lack of basements isn't really political. It has more to do with the nature of the land in that part of Oklahoma. The ground has a lot of bedrock in it, so you basically need explosives to carve out basements. It's very cost prohibitive and the bottom line is people just don't want to spend, or can't afford to spend, what it costs to put them in. The dorms I stayed in during my time up there were cinderblock construction and had cinderblock basements built in, and I believe that's what the basement at Plaza Towers had (not sure). If so, it's literally just stairs down to a basement, not a solid storm door or anything. If debris or elements get in, they get in. There's nowhere to go. A true storm shelter has a locked door on it, and the best ones have metal doors that are heavily bolted shut. The problem is, again, these are not cheap. It's the catch-22 that comes with living in that area.
What would scare me the most about the storm shelter would be debris getting on top of the door so it couldn't open.
What I heard this morning on the radio in regards to basements and shelters for the kids was that there is not enough underground space in those schools to have hundreds if not thousands of kids at one time... You take some non-perishable supplies and lots of batteries and a flashlight, and when it's done, keep knocking... someone will hear. But I hear you, it will be scary.
The schools that got demolished in the 1999 Moore F5 were rebuilt with hardened shelters that worked on Monday, and they withstood the storm. So obviously, it can be done. And the ones that were destroyed this time will too. The sad thing is: reactionary measures are too late for the 9 kids who perished.
The article refers to a 'safe room'. Not specifically a basement. I'm sure we have the engineering to build an above-ground room that would withstand a huge tornado.
