How much does Oklahoma need to build storm shelters for every school?

Knowing Oklahoma, no matter what the cost is, several cons will say that it is too much. Remember that they were opposed to aid to Katrina and even Chris Christie's New Jersey. z

Many schools have shelters of some sort, but they're generally not underground and would therefore be less effective in a tornado of this magnitude.

Unfortunately, "It's expensive" is actually a very justifiable answer and one that will be used a lot. To build an adequate shelter, they would first have to lift up each and every school and then build a shelter underneath. That costs a LOT of money. You have to take into consideration the size (big enough to hold all the kids and teachers) and the fact that there would have to be adequate restroom facilities and all of that. You're looking into hundreds of thousands of dollars...per school. Multiply that by about 2,000, which is the number of public schools in the state (and I don't even know how many private schools there are). And what happens if a school grows? My town is in an oil boom. We're trying to figure out what to do with the influx of new students we get every year. We're even talking about trying to pass a bond to add over a dozen classrooms to EACH site.

I live in Oklahoma. Most schools have tornado shelters. Unfortunately this tornado was a rare F5 which when its slow moving, as this one also was, will destroy anything above ground. Most of the school shelters are above ground concrete buildings constructed per code to be tornado shelters. Those don't help in this particular instance. F5s are very rare, to have one move so slowly like this is that much more so rare and then to have it actually hit a school. Odds do not justify the expense to build in ground shelters, unfortunately thats not very intelligent sounding in circumstances like this.

We all knew that this was possible today. Schools along the entire front from Wichita Falls KS, Oklahoma City and Wichita KS should have been out today. Thats the correct answer. With the advance we have today its no longer a guessing game to know that the likely hood of tornados and where they will form. The real solution is that kids should be with their family during times like this, so they parents can ensure their safety. Not the state.

Conditions that favor the formation of tornadoes can and are forecasted fairly well in advance, on the order of a few days or so. However there is no way to know exactly when and where one will actually form and how far it will go, let along how strong it will be. Warnings were issued about 15 to 20 minutes in advance as the tornado formed, bu that is when people need to go to shelter, not go outside. Most shelters are strong enough to withstand most tornadoes, but when they get as strong as the Moore tornado was (now classified as an EF-5) the only real safe place is below ground level, which many places do not have available.

First of all, it's not just Oklahoma. Every state in the nation has tornadoes so, we'd have to do all fifty states. A very small house sized one to hold a family is about six thousand dollars. To extrapolate, a typical school of say 500 would be 100 times more expensive which is $600,000. It would be less because there is commodity with size, so let's half that. So, we will estimate $300,000 per school.

There are approximately 100,000 schools in the US. So, 100,000 times 300,000 is $100000 about $30 Billion dollars.

Furthermore, schools are by states not by nation. So, the money would be raised most likely state by state. People in each state have their issues and spend to support their schools.

EDIT: You can't just say that answers that you don't like are justifiable. I actually have been a proponent of tornado shelters for years. It is in my field of expertise. But it's not the way that the law works or how economics works.

We have things called Building Codes. Building Codes stipulate how construction must be done. They are never retroactive. You can't change the law forcing things done in the past to be modified. We can update the codes that all new schools, hospitals and other Class 1 buildings require tornado shelters and I think we should. We can even make a law that they have to be retro-fitted if they make renovations or alterations on a certain scale as we do with the ADA. But we can't make a blanket law that existing buildings must be altered.

It is sad and I think it is a shame that buildings have been allowed to be built without shelters for so long. I've been advocating tornado shelters for over twenty years and almost no one will listen. I've also advocated fire safety techniques that have largely been ignored as well. All public buildings for example should have the exit signs AT FLOOR LEVEL, not over the doors. In a fire, they can't be seen above the doors.

Far more people die from building fires each year than from tornadoes, it just isn't as dramatic and doesn't make the news. About 50 die each year in the US from tornadoes and not all of them are in buildings. This is compared to 2,500 dying from building fires. So, if you are going to spend money making people safer, the money would be better spent on fire education, better fire exiting, extinguishers. A huge savings in life would come from requiring the two most dangerous things in your house to be made better...Your coffee pot and toaster. They kill more than tornadoes each year.

I have proposed that all stoves should have timers on the eyes. You have to set it for a stipulated amount of time to turn it on so if you forget, it turns itself off. They should also have an audible alarm every ten minutes when on. Just a little chirp to remind you it's on.

I live in Oklahoma and went to Kelly Elementary which was hit by a previous tornado. I wondered this myself, so here are some facts:

SCHOOL COUNT:

According to Oklahoma State Department of Education, there are 1,781 public schools with last reported enrollment of 673,190 students.

COSTS:

The cost for some FEMA grants on community sized shelters have been listed in Publication 361 at $150 to $240 per square foot, with recommended 5 square feet per standing person and 10 square feet per wheelchair.

TOTAL ESTIMATE:

Going with the larger number would require a minimum of 6.6 Million square feet of space for all public school students, which allows room for wheelchairs and teachers.

The resulting cost would be between $1 and 1.6 Billion.

Oklahoma's entire Education budget for 2012 was $3.4 Billion.

This does not account for private schools or home schools.

Yes, it's a matter of saying that spending the money would be worth it. However, it would be a state issue, not federal. And note that they are very expensive due to construction problems.

Most soils in Oklahoma are made up of a very dense, thick clay.

When clay soil, which is prevelant down to the bedrock, absorbs water such as in the winter or from rainstorms, it will swell and expand. Likewise, in the summer and in times of drought, it will shrink or contract. Seasonal swelling and contractions in the clay soil cause millions of dollars of damage to foundations of homes throughout Oklahoma every year.

But you can get a lot more information on the topic; if you google "why don't Oklahoma homes have basements?" you get pages of answers.

Well that was probably an F-5 or close. Isn't much you can do except pray a lot. For those less intense probably a good idea

For those trying to politicize it (not the person asking this question) you are the face of evil

I don't know of any schools that have tornado shelters. I've lived in the midwest all my life and we never had one at school.

But it's not America that takes care of schools. That's a state matter.

It is just a matter of building part of schools out of poured concrete, rather than sticking trailers in a parking lot.

Most of those older midwest schools had Fallout shelters from the 50's-60's

if NOT why don't they at least build them with Basements that could serve as

dual-purpose rooms??