There are so many lessons to be learned from these tragedies that could and should save lives. We live in central Oklahoma and listened to the weathermen who for two days predicted that violent storms were coming our way and to prepare for them. We have an underground shelter and took cover when the sirens went off. One of the seven tornadoes that struck Oklahoma was making a direct path for our house when it lifted seven miles from us and the wall cloud passed over us. We received tennis ball sized hail but no damage. Prayer really works.
Conventional wisdom says to take cover in the bathroom or an interior closet but an EF-4 or EF-5 tornado will take the house down to the foundation. I hope that more people will consider a contingency plan for tornado season and be prepared to move to more adequate shelter if time allows.
My first thought is that if I knew I had enough time to get there, and it was indeed an F5, I would seek out the nearest supermarket, since their walk-in freezers are usually able to withstand the winds better than anything else. That's what saved the people in Joplin that made the YouTube video.