Why doesn't oklahoma city schools have shelters? What a joke. (real estate, new construction)

[KaaBoom]

Originally Posted by SD4020

What homes weren't obliterated?

Um, the ones that were outside the path of the tornado, maybe?

[justNancy]

Originally Posted by waccamatt

My question is about basements - instead of having a 2 story school above ground, why not have 1 basement floor and one above ground? It wouldn't be any more expensive and it isn't like the water table in the great Plains is too high for basements like it is in many areas of the South.

[URL="http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/05/21/185857916/why-oklahomans-dont-like-basements"]Why Oklahomans Don't Like Basements : The Two-Way : NPR[/URL]


"We've got a high water table and red clay that expands and contracts depending on how much moisture there is in the soil," Keller says. "That expansion and contraction causes cracks in basement wall, and cracks mean leaks."

[SD4020]

Originally Posted by KaaBoom

Um, the ones that were outside the path of the tornado, maybe?

Again, how are you able to accurately predict which ones will be outside the path? You can't. To think you can is reckless and beyond ignorant.

[TheBeagleLady]

Originally Posted by KaaBoom

I have experienced tornados. Nothing like this one, but I have experienced them.

The 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students at Plaza Towers Elementary were taken out into the storm and to safety. All of those students were unharmed. So apparently I'm not the only one who thinks it would be a good idea to remove them from the school.

Now the question that will have to be answered is, why were the younger children left there?

Older children also have the ability to move faster and more maturity to grasp the seriousness of the situation. Perhaps they were closer to the church than the younger ones? You keep harping on the fact they had 41 minutes rather than 16. If you really had experience, you would know warnings are issued for whole counties, wide areas. They can't accurately predict the path a tornado will take that far in advance. Also, the shot you posted of the warning also showed a warning of golf ball size hail, and you really think they should have sent kids out in that storm? That would kill them, too.

Please just stop. At this point, you are being ridiculous and an insult to the fine people who live here and know the situation for what it really is.

[SD4020]

Originally Posted by KaaBoom

Again, they had 41 minutes, not 16 minutes at Plaza Towers Elementary. It was enough time for many parents to walk or drive to the school, pick up their kids, and take them to safety.

Half of the students, the entire 4th, 5th and 6th grades at Plaza Towers Elementary were evacuated to a shelter. If you can evacuate half the students, with a little more work they could all have been taken to safety. Now the question is why were the younger kids left in harms way?

Yes, it's too bad some parents had to be working. Because many of those children were injured or died.

Taking the warning you just posted that warning expired at 3:15. The tornado hit Plaza Tower school at 3:21. That would be 6 minutes after the quoted warning expired. let's think about for a minute. 6 minutes after it expired. So, NWS issued a new warning or extended the warning. This would be based on observer reports and radar returns. Additionally, the warned areas areas are whole counties. They paint the warning with broad strokes. Furthermore, you do not send children out into conditions where there is lightning and large hail and strong straight line winds.

Assuredly, sending children out into sending children into a storm with large hail and lightning would have resulted in many more being injured.

[DC at the Ridge]

Originally Posted by KaaBoom

Incorrect information. The tornado warning was issued at 2:40 PM CDT. Plaza Towers Elementary was hit at 3:21 PM. Thats 41 minutes. Not 16 minutes. It was enough time for them to evacuate half the students. Then it would be enough time for them to closes the school and take the kids home or to a shelter.

The warning is issued, the sirens go off, and people turn on their radios and TV's and go outside to take a look. The warning doesn't tell people where the tornado is (in this case, at 2:40 pm it was in Newcastle), what path the tornado is going to follow, or how big the tornado is. The warning says a possible tornado is imminent. The people at the schools had about 16 minutes warning that they were in the path of a tornado. I'd wager that they had zero idea that it was an EF5 bearing down on them, or that it was a slow-moving EF5, or that it was going to hit them directly.

[DC at the Ridge]

Originally Posted by KaaBoom

Some of them would have been safer in their homes that were not obliterated, then in their schools that were obliterated.

The safest place for them was at the school. The school was likely to be reinforced. They had supervisors and procedures in place. The rescuers knew where to look for them in the debris. The surrounding neighborhoods where they likely lived were obliterated, too.

[DC at the Ridge]

Originally Posted by waccamatt

My question is about basements - instead of having a 2 story school above ground, why not have 1 basement floor and one above ground? It wouldn't be any more expensive and it isn't like the water table in the great Plains is too high for basements like it is in many areas of the South.

It would be much more expensive. The water table is too high for basements, and the soil type (expandable clay) is not amenable to basements.

[debzkidz]

The tornado warning covered a very large area. If everyone who had children in any of the schools in that entire area poured out of their places of work, all over the metro area (which is a very large area) the freeways would have been absolutely jammed with frantic parents. That's just what we needed, many thousands of cars stuck in traffic during an F5 tornado.

[Globe199]

Originally Posted by KaaBoom

Again, they had 41 minutes, not 16 minutes at Plaza Towers Elementary. It was enough time for many parents to walk or drive to the school, pick up their kids, and take them to safety

https://twitter.com/NWSNorman/status/336463945219047424

7:50 AM - 20 May 2013

@NWSNorman

Attention school systems, parents and students!! We may be dealing with dangerous storms at school dismissal time! Plan ahead!

This tweet from NWS Norman was posted seven hours before the tornado formed. Highly prescient alert, wouldn't you say? Obviously it does not specify a location, but meteorologists had a very good idea what would happen and when.