dxo:
A teacher hugs a child at Briarwood Elementary school after a tornado destroyed the school in south Oklahoma City (5/20/13).
At least 20 children deadAn applicable comment on a news article I read:
“I grew up in Wichita Falls, Texas. That town has seen its share of tornadoes. The elementary and junior high schools I attended did not have basements or tornado shelters. They just stuck us in the hall.
I moved to Sherman, TX where they had just built a brand new, multi-million dollar high school. No basement. Fifty years later, most of the public schools in Texas and Oklahoma still don’t have basements, safe rooms, or tornado shelters. My dad was in the nursing home in Stillwater when the tornado sirens went off. No safe room, no shelter, no basement. There just isn’t anywhere for our most vulnerable populations to go when there is a tornado. Yes, I have a tornado shelter in my house. They just don’t put basements in houses here (or in Texas).
Hats off to Oklahoma State University which has huge basements under most of its classroom and research buildings. But basements for little kids in elementary school? They’re out of luck.”
Finally :)
