# Now is Not The Time to Make New Regulations About Tornado Safety **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 21, 2013, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-not-the-time-to-make-new-regulations-about-tornado-safety/658918 "2013-05-21T12:11:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2013, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-not-the-time-to-make-new-regulations-about-tornado-safety/658918/61 "2013-05-21T21:40:22Z")
Hey, remember that scene in _TWOO_ where Dorothy gets home just as Auntie Em and Uncle Henry have gone into the storm cellar and closed and locked the hatch? Why is that hatch **outside the house?** (Seems to be a typical design, too, from other pictures I’ve seen.) If the entrance to the storm cellar were inside the house, they wouldn’t need to lock it right away – not until they hear the house coming apart – and a latecomer could still get to safety. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2013, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-not-the-time-to-make-new-regulations-about-tornado-safety/658918/62 "2013-05-21T21:49:53Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Hey, remember that scene in _TWOO_ where Dorothy gets home just as Auntie Em and Uncle Henry have gone into the storm cellar and closed and locked the hatch? > > Why is that hatch **outside the house?** (Seems to be a typical design, too, from other pictures I’ve seen.) If the entrance to the storm cellar were inside the house, they wouldn’t need to lock it right away – not until they hear the house coming apart – and a latecomer could still get to safety. That’s a very interesting question, Brain Glutton. I’ve also seen storm shelters with doors like that one, that did go under the house, but you had to leave the house to get to them. I wonder if some historian can come up with the rationale behind those seperate shelters. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2013, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-not-the-time-to-make-new-regulations-about-tornado-safety/658918/63 "2013-05-21T21:53:32Z")
If the house falls down on top of your shelter hatch, your tornado shelter becomes a means to shelter you from food, water, and medical assistance. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2013, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-not-the-time-to-make-new-regulations-about-tornado-safety/658918/64 "2013-05-21T21:56:08Z")
How come the media never talks about the eight million self-defense uses of tornadoes in the past six months? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2013, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-not-the-time-to-make-new-regulations-about-tornado-safety/658918/65 "2013-05-21T22:00:20Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > That’s a very interesting question, Brain Glutton. I’ve also seen storm shelters with doors like that one, that did go under the house, but you had to leave the house to get to them. > > I wonder if some historian can come up with the rationale behind those seperate shelters. How is the movie’s “cyclone cellar” different from a standard old-fashioned cellar with an external door but no internal entrance? The house I lived in for all of my childhood had one of those: near-horizontal wooden double doors covering a staircase from outdoors into the cellar, but no cellar entrance from inside the house. Anyway, [the book version says](http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rgs/oz-1.html) that Dorothy’s family’s cyclone cellar entrance **is** inside the house: > [@](#): > > There was no garret at all, and no cellar–except a small hole dug in the ground, called a cyclone cellar, where the family could go in case one of those great whirlwinds arose, mighty enough to crush any building in its path. It was reached by a trap door in the middle of the floor, from which a ladder led down into the small, dark hole. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2013, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-not-the-time-to-make-new-regulations-about-tornado-safety/658918/66 "2013-05-21T22:08:01Z")
> [@fumster](#): > > In any case you are missing the analogy. Times like this is when one finds America at its best. Times like this is when you find Americans at their most emotional. Its not necessarily when they make the best decisions, remember 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq? > [@](#): > > We will aid those affected, look at our response to see what could be done better, and then see if there are ways of preventing future disasters. And would you be willing to violate some constitutional rights to achieve that goal? Lets say that we have a study and we decide that the best way to prevent more tornado deaths is to just confiscate the homes in tornado alley and prohibit people from stepping foot inside tornado alley. Would you be OK with that if I could prove that it would reduce tornado deaths? The OP is just a silly comparison. > [@](#): > > And you sure won’t see people lined up to buy the model of mobile home someone died in because of some ghoulish fetish. Are you under the impression that people were buying assault weapons because they wanted to have a gun just like the one that killed all those kids? Then you really don’t understand very much about the gun debate and your approach seems more geared towards vilifying your opponents than applying logic. When we banned assault weapons the first time around, I know people that made hundreds of thousands of dollars by owning some of the banned weapons. The supply of these weapons suddenly became limited and prices skyrocketed > [@fumster](#): > > A renewed AWB was hardly the only remedy that was being looked at following the Newtown shooting. It was the centerpeice. > [@](#): > > I also think it is stupid and prefer regsitration, back ground checks, and training. Did you make your senators aware of this? Did you call Obama and Feinstein and your state senators to let them know how stupid the AWB is? I did. I called my senators, I called my congressman, I call Feinstein, I called the white house and told them I was a democrat, that I had voted for all of them (I voted for Feinstein back when she ran for governor) and that they were making a mistake with the AWB. Did you do do this or were you perfectly willing to go along with this stupid idea? > [@](#): > > But like after all mass shootings the gun-fetishists start mewling “too soon” whenever we look at how to prevent future tragedies. Some, not all. Remember that the Manchin Toomey bill were sponsored by two senators that by all accounts are gun nuts. > [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Hey, remember that scene in _TWOO_ where Dorothy gets home just as Auntie Em and Uncle Henry have gone into the storm cellar and closed and locked the hatch? > > Why is that hatch **outside the house?** (Seems to be a typical design, too, from other pictures I’ve seen.) If the entrance to the storm cellar were inside the house, they wouldn’t need to lock it right away – not until they hear the house coming apart – and a latecomer could still get to safety. > **[Storm cellar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_cellar)** > > A storm shelter or storm cellar is a type of underground bunker designed to protect the occupants from severe weather, particularly tornadoes. They are most frequently seen in the Midwest ("Tornado Alley") and Southeastern ("Dixie Alley") United States where tornadoes are generally frequent and the low water table permits underground livings. > An average storm cellar for a single family is built close enough to the home to allow instant access in an emergency, but not so close that the house coul... ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2013, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-not-the-time-to-make-new-regulations-about-tornado-safety/658918/67 "2013-05-21T22:15:30Z")
Why is everyone blaming this on climate change, when its clearly a reaction to the AWB? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2013, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-not-the-time-to-make-new-regulations-about-tornado-safety/658918/68 "2013-05-21T22:24:28Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > (On a separate note, how long until the conspiracy theorist decide the Obama has a magic tornado machine he used to wipe out a swath of Moore just to take the spotlight off of Benghazi/IRS/subpoenas to find the Yemen leak/Michele’s bangs?) The conspiracy nuts were blaming the government (“obviously [HAARP](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAARP) related”) almost immediately after the news broke. ---
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2013, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-not-the-time-to-make-new-regulations-about-tornado-safety/658918/69 "2013-05-21T22:25:03Z")
The real problem is laws that prevent law-abiding citizens from owning guns that protect them from tornadoes. By shooting them to death in self-defense. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2013, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-not-the-time-to-make-new-regulations-about-tornado-safety/658918/70 "2013-05-21T22:27:21Z")
Which is why we need the extra-capacity magazines! If you think just one bullet is gonna stop a tornado, you’re crazy! ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2013, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-not-the-time-to-make-new-regulations-about-tornado-safety/658918/71 "2013-05-21T22:38:09Z")
> [@sich\_hinaufwinden](#): > > This school hit by the OK tornado had a basement. Unfortunately a number of kids drowned in it. > > [Several children drowned in basement as tornado leveled Okla. school as officials continue recovery efforts](http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/children_drowned_officials_basement_3rJIZQk4MtoIhZTQjqZrBJ) Ok, we need to ban water from basements too. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2013, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-not-the-time-to-make-new-regulations-about-tornado-safety/658918/72 "2013-05-21T22:57:14Z")
Only two things come from Oklahoma: steers and queers. I don’t know about cattle, but the meteorological effects of queers are well established. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-not-the-time-to-make-new-regulations-about-tornado-safety/658918/73 "2013-05-22T01:03:28Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > That’s a very interesting question, Brain Glutton. I’ve also seen storm shelters with doors like that one, that did go under the house, but you had to leave the house to get to them. > > I wonder if some historian can come up with the rationale behind those seperate shelters. Probably because if you put the entrance and staircase in the house, you take up valuable floor space. It’s like garages and carriage houses were always built as detached buildings-- they weren’t meant to be accessed from inside the house. And if they’re just dirt floor, unfinished walls, you’d get all kinds of critters having access to your house, too. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-not-the-time-to-make-new-regulations-about-tornado-safety/658918/74 "2013-05-22T01:26:33Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > BTW, that tornado is what brought brought anchorman and news journalist Bill Kurtis to prominence. He was a law student, 26 at the time, at Washburn University(which was 3/4’s destroyed). During the summer he was interning at WIBW, the local station. When he was made aware of how the storm was going to go right across town, he said he considered crying, or cussing on air, to get people to know how serious things were. What he ended up blurting out, and the eleven year old me still remembers this, was “_For God’s sake, take cover_!” Bill Kurtis is great and heading for godhood playing backup quarterback for Carl Kassell on _Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me._ [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e8c25b/32.png) [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/excavating_for_a_mind)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-not-the-time-to-make-new-regulations-about-tornado-safety/658918/75 "2013-05-22T02:40:29Z")
I blame the Storm Chasers. Maybe, just maybe, if every yahoo with a SUV and [del]a 100 Grand of electronic equipment[/del]a laptop and a wireless connection wasn’t chasing these Godless storms, they wouldn’t feel the need to attack defenseless Elementary Schools. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-not-the-time-to-make-new-regulations-about-tornado-safety/658918/76 "2013-05-22T10:00:02Z")
Sheriff Arpaio just shoved an entire tornado up his ass and he liked it. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-not-the-time-to-make-new-regulations-about-tornado-safety/658918/77 "2013-05-22T11:19:29Z")
No, it was just an accident while he was playing Twister. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-not-the-time-to-make-new-regulations-about-tornado-safety/658918/78 "2013-05-22T11:35:29Z")
I’m convinced Dianne Feinstein is to blame here somehow. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-not-the-time-to-make-new-regulations-about-tornado-safety/658918/79 "2013-05-22T15:43:21Z")
> [@artemis](#): > > Because in many areas of Tornado Alley, high water tables and crumbly, shifting soils make basements very difficult to build. I would think crumbly, shifting soils would make houses and larger buildings in general difficult to build. FWIW, my aunt and late uncle’s house, which is about a Frisbee throw\* from the OK line in south central Kansas, has a basement. \*OK, maybe an Aerobie throw. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-not-the-time-to-make-new-regulations-about-tornado-safety/658918/80 "2013-05-22T15:46:58Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > Inhofe, on the other hand, [is insisting that the situation in OK is _nothing like_ the situation in NJ and NY with Sandy](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/05/21/inhofe-tornado-totally-different-from-hurricane-sandy/). He’s right, you know! Because Oklahoma is filled with God-fearing Republicans who don’t smoke marijuana in Muskogee. (There’s your earworm for the day. :)) And the NY/NJ area is filled with liberals, atheists, college professors, druggies, and people with the wrong color of skin. _Totally_ different. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-not-the-time-to-make-new-regulations-about-tornado-safety/658918.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-is-not-the-time-to-make-new-regulations-about-tornado-safety/658918.md?page=5)