No one had to die in Oklahoma

[socialsecurityisAAA]

Also rare in Moore, apparently, are adequate storm shelters--even in schools. "Most of the schools in Oklahoma don't have one" because of the cost, Moore Mayor Glenn Lewis told CNN. For those cost savings, we paid with the lives of nine children.

This is horrendous. It's unconscionable. It's insane. But it's the way a market society prepares for disasters--it doesn't. We saw after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans that the government had done nothing to prepare for what was later revealed to be an avoidable disaster in many respects. The entities most ready and able to provide material assistance were Home Depot and Wal-Mart, out of the goodness of their credit card swiping machines.

We saw after Hurricane Sandy struck the East Coast that makeshift relief organized by Occupy activists did a better job than the establishment Red Cross, and that the cost for preventative infrastructure would have been a fraction of the cost to rebuild.

But you can't rebuild dead children. There should have been a shelter inside that school, and there should be a shelter in every school that is at risk for devastating storms like this. The warning came 15 minutes before the tornado touched down and a half hour before it hit the school. No one had to die.

Read more: http://socialistworker.org/2013/05/23/no-one-had-to-die-in-oklahoma


As our hearts are with the victims of this HORRID tragedy, as with Katrina, we must also vigilantly pay heed to any lessons we can glean from this horror. If lives can be saved by instituting necessary changes, such changes can honor those who were lost.

[uppityperson]

1. k&r and thanks.

[HooptieWagon]

2. Republican Utopia...small government and low taxes.

So what if kids die in OK and bridge collapses in Wash? Free markets, baby!
<sarcasm alert>

[Jenoch]

3. I'm not suggesting that schools in Oklahoma should not have shelters,

but did you SEE that tornado? There were only 24 deaths. They must know something about surviving an EF5.

[Warpy]

4. A direct hit from an EF5

can rip shelter doors off their hinges and did open some of them since the locking device was simply not up to the force of the winds.

I'm shocked the death toll in that school was so low, frankly. Since the kids died of asphyxiation instead of blunt force trauma, maybe scarves over their faces could have kept the worst of the dirt out of little mouths, noses and lungs.

The point is that the protocols in the schools worked, as far as they went.

[socialsecurityisAAA]

7. The death toll could have been lower

There are stronger shelters. Wooden doors may be torn to bits, thick metal doors would hold just fine.

[Warpy]

8. Metal doors are standard on concrete lined shelters

and they were sucked open because the latch was inadequate.

[jakeXT]

9. Maybe it was a mix of water and dirt

Seven children in the building didn't make it out, according to the Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Six died of suffocation, trapped under the rubble, according to the office. A seventh, 8-year-old Kyle Davis, was killed by a stone or beam that fell on his neck.

Nichols said she was perplexed by early reports that students drowned in a basement because Plaza Towers doesn't have any. But water was pouring in from a main break into the collapsed building Ethan had been in, she said

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/05/23/tornado-plaza-towers-oklahoma/2354117/

[AverageJoe90]

5. Definitely a good post, with just one caveat.

Sadly, I'm not sure that even if every house had had a shelter that no one would have died; though it wasn't as strong as the May 3rd, '99 twister(and it sure as hell wasn't one of the worst tornadoes ever, contrary to the MSM's hyperbolic exaggeration), it still did a lot of damage.....though, TBH, I do think it certainly would've kept the death toll down, though.

[exboyfil]

6. Epic Probability understanding failure

In a random game of chance prior occurrence has no impact on future occurrence so best case his quote below is idiotic ("who would have thought we would get a second tornado&quot . Weather is not a random chance - if an event occurs in one area, it is more likely to occur again than in some other randomly selected area.

So what did your town do Mayor to piss off God (sarcasm alert)?



http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57585803/parents-ask-why-some-oklahoma-schools-dont-have-tornado-shelters/

In Moore, Mayor Glenn Lewis says he plans to push for new houses to have shelters or safe rooms. Right now, he said there is no requirement.

"It's been a free market society," he said.

After 1999, he said, local building codes were tightened to require stronger metal clamps to secure roofs on houses. The mayor said 2,000 shelters were built in private homes, but he didn't believe it was necessary to require them until now.

"Who thought we'd would have an EF5 tornado happen in same place twice?" he said. "We're just hoping it doesn't happen again."