About Joplin Mo. ......A Question WHY??

[rsmith6621]

....I lived in Memphis for 2.5 years because of my job. For 11 of those months I rented a room inside of a private residence and the remainder a very nice apartment just inside the Mississippi border 10 miles south of Memphis. When my wife and I were looking for apartments we asked each of the 15 property mangers how close and when did the last tornado past by(was told an average of 5 miles) followed up by do you have a storm shelter on site and what is the procedure if a warning is issued...where do we go??? Not one of those apartments had emergency shelters and one manager said no one in the Memphis area did...


Today in my front room of my home in Seattle I was thinking why has no one ever pushed legislation/code requiring such establishments to provide such for their tenants...also the warning sirens were barley heard from our place so that would be something to localize as well.

Does the cost make it prohibitive? For those of you in the south is there shelters at your apartment?

[maxsolomon]

1. the cost isn't "prohibitive"

but it is a cost. and in america, that's enough to eliminate it.

unless the state, county, or municipality passes a law it won't happen. and given the paralysis at all levels of government, it won't happen anytime soon. america is too cheap to do the right thing unless it is also the profitable thing.

remember, these were unprecedented tornado cells. and where they hit is random. most tornado shelters would go unused for the life of the building. require it, and every landlord starts screaming bloody murder about unfunded mandates & donates to the opposition, who promise to bend over further than the incumbent already does for property owners.

[damntexdem]

2. Even when law does require it, that doesn't mean that builders and owners follow the law.

A few years ago, a tornado wiped out a trailer park in the city where I lived. Multiple deaths. The place was supposed to have a tornado shelter for residents, but didn't.

[maxsolomon]

5. then it should never have passed final inspection

that's the city's job on any permitted project.

[The Wielding Truth]

3. Just like an earthquake prone area building code should mandate security provisions.

You would think that insurance companies would insist on it. Oh. No, that's letting the "free market" work or rather not work.

Government needs to pass community building and zoning laws to protect lives and property.

That's reality.That's something that our RW friends should realize now.

[xmas74]

4. The places here do not have shelters

but they are supposed to give you info about where the nearest shelter is located. In my town, every school, the university, many of the churches, courthouse, etc are all shelters.

[Pithlet]

6. There were no shelters at either apartments I lived in here.

I have a house now, but it still worries me because a strong enough tornado and you need to be below ground. But it's still better than when I lived in a second floor. I was really a sitting duck, then. During tornado warnings I'd get in my tub and hope for the best.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. We have shelters here

I thought there was a law.

[Retrograde]

8. Yeah, more nanny-stateism

Regulating what people can do with their property. Let the free market decide! :sarcasm:

I think it's a combination of tornadoes tending to occur in places that historically don't like to spend tax dollars on infrastructure, plus a feeling of "it can't happen to us". I have seen some places with designated tornado shelters in Indiana, but I don't know how widespread they are.

[hobbit709]

9. If you live in Seattle do you know your lahar escape route?