One of the most shocking stories to come out of the Oklahoma tornado this week is this one. The mind reels that in the middle of tornado alley, in a place where a previous F5 tornado devastated the town in 1999, no safe room existed in the school.
Full story: http://houston.cbslocal.com/2013/05/22/school-where-7-students-died-lacked-tornado-safe-room/
Dr. Roger Pielke Sr. puts the issue into perspective with our QOTW:
http://twitter.com/RogerAPielkeSr/status/337023601314234368
30 years ago, I participated in the design of a new school somewhere in southern Mississippi. With the threat of hurricanes in the area, the design incorporated a reinforced central corridor to act as a shelter in emergency situations. The doors at either end were also doubled and reinforced. This added a minimal amount to the overall cost, something like $60,000 out of a $3.2 million dollar budget; less than 2%. It is my understanding that our design weathered Katrina without a single crack in any of the walls or ceiling, even though the remainder of the building was destroyed!!! Give engineers a challenge, and a bit of money to work with, and we can solve the simple problems like keeping kids safe in school.
I do think it is a good idea to have a hardened area in schools to serve as a shelter and not only to protect students, schools are frequently used as shelters in many areas during and following disasters. That said, tornado safe rooms have their limits. This was an EF-5 tornado and the destructive power of such a storm is so incredible that it is hard to even comprehend. It’s possible a tornado shelter would’ve saved lives but it’s also possible that it wouldn’t. There are no guarantees with a storm of this magnitude.
I know Maddow is not popular here (I disagree with 1/2 the time) but she did do a good segment on lack of tornado safe rooms in Moore and how they saved lives in itty bitty Tushka, Oklahoma near Atoka. I happened to catch it on Sirius radio and hunted it down. She points out the difficulty Moore was having with FEMA up to this February with the safe room grants.
http://once.unicornmedia.com/now/od/auto/3aaae01e-e0f4-439d-aa7a-8d5e3e774105/db6630fb-4bb5-45b9-ba6e-04014bcf7f30/n_maddow_3surviv_130521/n_maddow_3surviv_130521.once?UMADPARAMsite=17258&UMADPARAMzone=53171
Those Tornado Clips will do NOTHING for a roof or wall when that wall or roof is hit with an airborne Chevy Suburban, Ford Explorer, and a Toyota Prius at speeds of 250+ mph in quick succession. The clip may survive, but that is the only thing you will have left.
There is just nothing you can do to an above ground structure in the face of an EF5 monster. Like the comedian Ron White once said, “It isn’t THAT the wind is blowing, it is WHAT the wind is blowing. If you get hit with a Volvo, it doesn’t matter if you did 200 push-ups that morning.”
-GKR
Hurricane clips and anchors wouldn’t protect against a direct hit, but would be of value in marginal situations, where the tornado passes nearby. Such winds reach only hurricane speeds. Probably five or ten houses are affected by such speeds for every one that is directly hit.
Especially since NYC was specifically warned by a 2009 (?) report to build such a barrier. The response of govt. (and maybe of Bloomberg specifically) was to commission a counter-report from the Greenies at Columbia U. that pooh-poohed the idea.
http://www.christianpost.com/news/westboro-tornado-blame-jason-collins-and-kevin-durant-to-blame-for-oklahoma-twister-claims-phelps-video-96388/
Apparently it was gods anger for supporting gay basketball players
Not to sound cold hearted (I lived in Oklahoma for 25 years and still have family there) — every year 40,000 people die on our nations roads. Risk is largely a matter of perception. Statistically, we should be far more concerned about getting behind the wheel of our car on our drive home from work tonight then being hit by a tornado. And yet how many of us really understand the dangers that we face each and every day? I imagine that everyday we engage in behavior that presents very high statistical risks, but are unaware of doing so.
How much more expensive is it to build a tornado proof (or even highly resistant) structure in a school, a room that is big enough for all the students plus the staff?
Very heavy reinforced pre-stressed concrete walls and roof would probably be required to be safe under the effects of one of these class EF-5 monsters.
That sort of thing does not come cheap, especially for a space like the gymnasium.
” … no [EF5-rated] safe room existed in the school. ”
There. Fixed it.
Would have survived an EF3 I’l wager …
Dan, what was the building designed-for top-wind-speed-wise?
PS. Bear in mind Hurricane-rated (perhaps somewhere inland) vs EF5 twister rated.
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If Oklahoma’s ancient history is anything like North Texas (and some of it is) THEN this was all ancient sea bed at one time and that means LIMESTONE (literally: ‘rock’) beneath that ‘clay’ soil.
Diggin that ain’t easy … and neither is driving ‘ground rods’ to any depth.
Doable, but at a cost.
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This sound like a big s-t-r-e-t-c-h pat. Normally you aren’t this hyperbolic.Post hoc, ergo propter hoc as well?
If preparations for SAFE shelters wasn’t started 3 years ago in the capital allocation cycle, it’s just a little too late a couple minutes AFTER the stove-pipe or ‘wedge’ tornado forms off to one’s (the school’s in this case) westerly direction … on top of that, when was she elected?
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Maybe a few solar panels or windmills would have saved the school?
(Sorry. It’s a tragedy and I don’t mean to make light of it. But isn’t putting tax dollars into such things instead of improving protection from such weather events the “solution” the Boxers and Hansenites are promoting?)
maybe it was the drainage issues related to the clay content I was thinking of, been so long since friends there mentioned it I wasn’t sure.
thanks all.
How rare are EF5 tornado events again george e. smith?
EVERY school between Oklahoma and Ohio (yes, Xenia OH in 1974 was rated an “F5”) down into Alabama needs to be reviewed again for EF5 tornado survival-safety given your logic in this … and I’m not saying I’m against this, just stating what *should* be known and should be obvious.
Then we move on to other public-occupancy spaces, like shopping malls and shopping centers, then anyplace where it is possible people in other ‘groups’ could be killed or injured en masse like factories and the like … and last but not least, ALL personal residences … where does it stop?
It’s kinda like AGW, what ‘level’ of preventative measures (the precautionary principle) do you incorporate? That’s the debate that’s needed. The cost-to-benefit ratio one.
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PS Fukushima was a snafu. I think plans originally called for facilities to be mounted further back and up the embankment, but …
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Jack Maloney says:
May 22, 2013 at 9:05 am
But you can’t get science grants, media headlines or speeches by Al Gore for funding a tornado shelter.
Yeah, exactly, and this DESPITE the fact that according to the constantly bleated ‘consensus’ – that extreme weather events and tornadoes will and are increasing (even though they are not) – the situation is so thick with irony and hypocrisy as to be immensely sad and distressing.
Tragic loses, but were there lessons learned. Not sure listening to the governor today on Fox News. Adults are entitled to be stupid, children need to be protected. Government buildings in dangerous areas must be safer. No, I’m not bill o’reilly.
Experts say “Hurricane clips connect the top plate to trusses or rafters”
Why not extend the clips down to the studs that are underneath the top plate, like I’ve done in my house? The plates have just a couple of vertical nails into the studs, and those nails can easily pull out. The studs are very much stronger. I think the “experts” are wrong here.
Cross patch, I jumped to the same spot wrt to the lake. Not sure why that would happen.
Regarding a safe house in a basement and flooding…. This is a well known problem. It is not one of those things that people haven’t thought of. In fact if you go to the website of any above ground safe house manufacturer, the first thing they point out is the problem with flooding, if you get trapped in an underground shelter (very foreseeable with debris everywhere). It really does not take that much steel to make an above ground safe house to handle an F5, and above ground retrofits are not that expensive. The fact this school was built in 1966 is not an excuse (in my opinion) once I read how little steel it takes to withstand an F5 and how retrofits are not that expensive.
Since I live where we get tornado warnings one or twice a year, I am seriously thinking about a steel safe house retrofit of my master bedroom closet.
And since I am not one of these people who think government should be drowned in a bathtub, I would have no problem with government programs (state or federal) to help with the installation of safe houses. Taxes well spent.
DanF points out that it’s straight forward to engineer buildings with robust shelters incorporated in the structure; for a very small incremental cost. The rest of the building can no doubt be built to withstand lesser tornadoes; with only superficial damage.
Where I live (Western Australia), general structures have to be designed to withstand 50-year weather events. Public and significant infrastructure are engineered to withstand 100-year events.
The substantial problem with high winds is the impact of flying objects. Storm-prone areas should already have shutters that can be closed to protect windows and the everyday doors; not primarily against the wind, but against projectiles. If adequate warning is normally available, then the shutters can be secured boards, firmly attached to the building by e.g. residents at short (e.g. hour’s) notice. Obviously; if a storm warning is short and/or the residents not available to secure their homes, then the houses are likely to suffer severe damage.
Permanently-fitted, exterior storm shutters, typically hinged, are a feature of many buildings in tropical storm regions. If a neighbour notices that a house’s shutters haven’t been closed, then they can close a dozen shutters in 5 minutes; after closing their own.
Public and business buildings potentially need “automatic” shutters if the buildings are large; but they should be pre-fitted, ready to close at a moment’s notice. Shuttering systems may be dual-purpose; as regular building security measures so their costs are quick to recover.
It is safe to assume that everything outside, that is not fixed to the ground, will become a projectile. Things that are fixed but are not structures designed to withstand the storm, may break an become a projectile.
If I lived in Oklahoma, I would look into building a monolithic house. I know there are monolithic schools in some areas also. In fact, if I were starting out again in a wildfire prone area, I would go for a monolithic house. Good for earthquakes too.
A few observations from an Oklahoma resident…
– some comments have already mentioned that the school did not have a basement and the children were not drowned. This article (http://newsok.com/oklahoma-tornado-names-of-dead-released-missing-individuals-located/article/3829508) specifically mentions that the cause of death was mechanixal asphyxia or suffication and not drowning.
– everyone has priorities and OKC residents have been voting for a special sales tax since 1993 to fund specific projects. I think they are on the fourth round of funding (3 specific series of projects and an extension). “MAPS for Kids” was very specific – improve the schools. While the majority of the sales tax went to OKC schools, the City sent money to the suburbs to help their schools. Most OKC money went to construction/renovation of schools as well as computers and other items. The City of Moore received a large amount of money (at least $33 million) but I am not sure how they spent it – but it may have been more important to improve the education process instead of the buildings. Their choice.
– since the May 99 tornado, there has been an increase interest in safe rooms and storm shelters. I think many of the newer homes offer these features. To retro-fit an older house, one interesting option is to break up the concrete slab in your garage, dig a hole and place a prefab unit with a sliding cover in the hole. In my community, you can register the shelter (I think the police come over and take a gps reading of the location). I heard on many reports that the Moore police were taking their list of registered shelters and locating them to ensure that no one was buried under the debris. So there has been an increase in the number of safe rooms and below ground shelters. But, it is still my cost to improve my home. I don’t accept the concept of a handout from others.
– water and tornadoes – I can tell you that tornadoes do attack boat clubs and marinas. Our boat club on Lake Hefner was hit by a F0 storm. Boats that were not staked down flew all over the place and caused damage. But, I also saw properly secured boats sawed in half. On Lake Thunderbird, many boats were lost in 2010 to a tornado.
Our community is blessed with three TV stations that love to compete on weather coverage – they all put helicopters up to film the storm, broadcast ALL THE TIME and tell you which street the storm is coming down. On Sunday, my hiding spot was all ready for me to duck into, but I was still watching the TV for the location. The storm passed under 2 miles from me – no big deal. Our local guys do great – I don’t rely on the NWS to issue warnings. After a while, even a “transplant” gets to know the feeling of a bad weather day. However, outside of OK, I sure get nervous with the lack of communication on storms.
Every area has challenges but I’ll take the tornadoes. Don’t like the earthquakes and constant wildfires of CA, tropical storms and flash floods of the east, snow/ice storms of the north…oh wait – I have experienced all of those in Oklahoma. At least, I don’t think I have to worry about a tsumani.
The US is behind e rest of the developed world in funding computer models that can predict these sort of storms. It is very likely that the early warning of this event was made possible by the European mid range weather forecasting model.
Unfortunately it appears that ideological stances by politicians are against government funding effective computer prediction AND school shelters.
izen says:
May 22, 2013 at 11:51 pm
“The US is behind e rest of the developed world in funding computer models that can predict these sort of storms. It is very likely that the early warning of this event was made possible by the European mid range weather forecasting model.”
Izen, the mystery man. It is really below you to give us a link or tell us the name of said model, I understand.
So we will have to wait for the next time you drop one of your timeless wisdoms.