Now ya do what they told ya?

What’s Right About Regulation?

This last week marked the one year anniversary of the EF5 tornado that struck the Moore, OK area, killing 24 and injuring 377 others. [1]Within the area hardest hit area lie two elementary school which both suffered significant damage. A 2013 preliminary study on one of the schools concluded that lack of a stringent enough building code and structural deficiencies led to the partial collapse. [2]The reason I bring this up is because at 10:00 pm Monday night, May 19, the local tornado sirens were blaring here in God’s country and I found myself huddled up in the basement with my wife and 3 children putting into practice our emergency action plan. While no funnel cloud actually touched down, we lost power for almost 2 hours which gave us an opportunity to “shake out” our supplies. On a side note, the kids, who were eager to taste test an MRE, like the idea of a meal ready to eat much more than the taste.

Having an area of safer refuge to go certainly provides a warmer fuzzy feeling, and it made me wonder how people that live within the boundaries of Tornado Alley could possibly live without some sort of engineered safe room? Should this be required and if so where? Who and how would this get paid for and what would be the minimum requirements?

While none of these questions seem to have an easy answer, it did not stop the Moore City Council from mandating 12 significant changes in residential building codes, borrowing from lessons learned by studies on hurricane damage reduction. The resilience efforts made Moore the first city in the US to adopt a building code specifically addressing the effects of tornadoes on homes which exceeds the national standards set by the National Association of Home Builders. [3]The reality is that these requirements won’t prevent tornadoes from destroying even the toughest structures. If we face the decision to mandate changes in the name of security, do we or don’t we? Is this a slippery slope of regulation leading the “now ya do what they told Ya?” generation. [4]

[1] “Victims Remembered 6 Months After May 20 Tornado”. news9.com (KWTV-DT). November 20, 2013. Archived from the original on January 24, 2014. Retrieved January 24, 2014.

[2] Structural faults found in destroyed Moore elementary school, engineer says, The Oklahoman, February 21, 2014.

[3] Moore City Council takes historic step in bolstering homes, The Oklahoman, March 17, 2014.

[4] Lyrics from the 1992 album “Rage Against the Machine”.