I grew up in Norman OK, next to Moore, Norman Ok is the center of Tornado ally for planet earth. During the spring and early summer Tornado's are common enough that most people stop reacting to them to some degree. I can remember people climbing on their roofs to watch Tornado's go by, its normal, not a lot of risk most time. Radar can see them pretty easy and even back in the 1970's they had a good warning system in place. I lived in Norman from 1966 to 1984 and Tulsa till 1989, and never did I hear of a SINGLE school that did not have its own underground shelter, every school built up to that time had a tornado shelter, 1/3 of all home had shelters, small damp but underground. Now they build schools, stick 500 children in them for 8 hours a day in the heart of tornado ally with no shelters thinking the BIG ones wont hit, not here. The walls they build are designed to withstand a F1 to F2 tornado's, the more common ones but dear GOD build the damn shelters underground, find the money or don't build them. I still have family in Norman, they are fine but they were only about 5 miles from the school that got hit, like a lots of people there, many are asking why there wasn't an underground shelter?
Might help to understand that most people in Oklahoma treat Tornado's the same way Californians treat earthquakes, common events, something to go out and watch once the weather man lets you know what direction it is moving.
