Why?

[Control-Z]

Why don't all buildings have cellars/basements in these tornado prone locations? Kids in a school hallway? Those poor babies. This doesn't make sense to me.

Does anyone know?

[alsame]

1. I was wondering the same thing. You would think that

schools and hospitals, at the very least, would have underground shelters.

[redqueen]

2. I don't know..

Cost? The bedrock is shallow here in N Tx... Maybe its the same there... That's what we did too, line up in hallways against the walls... Those poor kids... It is beyond terrifying

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Adds ta da cost.

Another Goddam Gubmink reggalashun fum da Nanny State.

[Ed Suspicious]

14. This is it. When I briefly lived in central Missouri with my second grade daughter, we travelled on

gravel roads to her school which was overflowing with kids who were taught in mobile home type structures to absorb the overflow. One of them would go for one hell of a ride in a tornado.

These red state inhabitants love their low taxes.

[hrmjustin]

4. I heard something about the rock in the area requires dynamite to get a basement.

[X_Digger]

11. This ^^

Most of Oklahoma and about 1/2 of Texas is a think skin of soil over solid rock.

[relayerbob]

5. Water table is too high ...

according to people I know from there

[madinmaryland]

7. We had the same issue in Ohio. We could build a "crawl space" which was only 1-2 ft deep.

[X_Digger]

15. Usually not, no.

Perhaps you're thinking of most of the southern gulf states, in the coastal areas- Houston, New Orleans, Mobile.

[Squinch]

6. I wondered the same, especially because the same area was destroyed in 1999.

I would think the rebuild would have included those precautions.

[librechik]

8. 4th, 5th and 6th graders safe in a nearby church before the hit.

other kids unknown, probably in school hallway.

[Nay]

9. How about a massively reinforced hallway that everyone knows to go to in case of a

tornado? Like a reinforced concrete bunker/pipe built above ground? Surely that would be preferable to what we are seeing on TV right now.

[Tx4obama]

10. Most homes in like Dallas/Houston don't have basements.

Most houses are built on concrete slab foundations - with no basements.

A lot different down here than it is up north.

[Wait Wut]

12. I don't know.

I was born and raised in suburban Chicago and went to 4 elementary schools, one Jr. High and one High School. All had basements except for one elementary school. It was one of those quickie jobs to stop overcrowding at other local schools, so the layout and construction was kind of odd.

Every house I lived in had a basement.

I do remember tornado drills, clearly. Only one of the schools actually had us file down to the basement. The others taught us to sit in the hallway with our head between our knees and our necks covered. Probably because there wasn't enough room in the basement.

[lapfog_1]

13. most rural homes do have cellars

and basements, just like you see in the movies.

That's where I grew up.

Some schools and hospitals do as well.

With the technology we have today on predictions and building "safe rooms" (even above ground), deaths from tornadoes should be very rare.

[Texasgal]

16. especially since this area was hit in 1999

by a severe tornado.

The rebuilding with storm shelters should have been mandatory.

[Control-Z]

18. This.

"The rebuilding with storm shelters should have been mandatory. "

[leveymg]

17. The best answer I could find is this one:

Obviously technology exists for each and every reason why basements are not common (in OK). But the question is why don't houses here HAVE basements, not why CAN'T they. Bottom line, traditional cost prohibitions plus cheap land have created an environment where they are not customary. you can come up with all the reasons why they should be and explain away every reason why they aren't, but I can guarantee you that if they were profitable, in this part of the world, they would be installed. they aren't, so they aren't.

Read more: http://www.city-data.com/forum/oklahoma/81711-why-no-basements-most-homes-oklahoma-6.html#ixzz2TsEhFyQ0