Is there any way to prevent damage from monster tornadoes?

The mayor of Moore, Okla., vows to require a reinforced shelter in every new home

This is what remains of the Plaza Towers Elementary school where seven children were killed as they sought shelter in the above-ground classrooms.
(Image credit: Benjamin Krain/Getty Images)

Authorities in Moore, Okla., have wrapped up the search for bodies and survivors in the mounds of rubble left behind by Monday's ferocious tornado, and started the huge task of cleaning up the debris. The tornado killed 24 people as it tore a 1.3-mile-wide path through town, tearing houses down to their foundations as it passed. Mayor Glen Lewis vowed Wednesday to propose an ordinance requiring every house built in town from now on to have a reinforced tornado shelter — which typically cost $4,000 apiece — to reduce the death toll the next time a monster twister hits.

More than 100 schools across the state — and many more in other parts of the Midwestern region known as Tornado Alley — have fortified safe rooms already. But the two Moore schools flattened by this week's tornado, which packed winds upwards of 200 miles per hour, did not. In one of the schools, Briarwood Elementary, everyone got out alive. In the other, Plaza Towers Elementary, seven children were killed as they sought shelter in above-ground classrooms.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.