Posted on 05/21/2013 6:58:39 AM PDT by Biggirl
MOORE, Okla. (CBS Houston/AP) Search and rescue crews worked through the night after a monstrous tornado barreled through the Oklahoma City suburbs, demolishing an elementary school and reducing homes to piles of splintered wood. At least 24 people were killed and and that number is expected to climb, officials said Tuesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at houston.cbslocal.com ...
And showbiz “progressives” will mock the victims because they’re not from Vermont...or California...or Maryland but...GASP...OKLAHOMA!
Where is the Superintendent of the Moore ISD to give an explanation of why his district did not dismiss at 1:00 PM as the OKC schools did? In the last week of school, nothing that crucial is being done that it should cost he injury and death of those children. There should be consequences for this wrong-headed decision.
OKC weathermen, headed by the Dean of Tornado Warnings, Gary England, know when to sound the alarm about incoming weather there. They should ALWAYS be obeyed because they are 99% correct.
I can’t get the original article to stay up on my screen so that I can read it. How did this happen?
It makes me wonder too, because does not the southern, southwestern schools get out first for the summer by Memorial Day?
Dismiss to where? To go home only to be killed or injured as that F5 ripped the house apart?
Here it is:
http://houston.cbslocal.com/2013/05/21/7-children-drowned-in-basement-of-elementary-school/
Look for it to be declared an F5. I cannot understand why it was given an F4 instead.
Would dismissal at 1:00 pm had those children on the road or going to homes where there were no parents? They may have thought the storm was too imminent to send the buses out.
Obama just said in presser that ‘the children were sheltering in the safest place they knew...their schools’.
If dems did not spend so much money on pointless crap like globull warming and obamaphones...perhaps they could have built better shelters for those in Oklahoma schools!!
It still won’t stay up on my screen. It loads half way and then clicks to blank. Why did 7 children drown? Was there a flood? Broken pipes? Were there other children in the basement who did not drown?
Somebody who has actually read the story, please comment.
This is heartbreaking... my prayers for the families and all who are affected by this disaster.
What about drills did they have such things during the school year? Was someone supposed to shut off the water and electricity and gas during this coming storm? I’m just asking questions ....
I do not know, because this storm came quickly.
Yes, I read it was broken pipes. I can’t imagine there was a basement. Modern schools don’t have basements. Perhaps it was a maintenance room.
Kids were in basement. When a 2” water main feeding the school is compromised that is prob 1000 gals a minute being flowed into the basement. This is just an estimate on the volume of water flowing to the basement and the piping size but I would say a 2” main would be needed to operate the facility. Bricks and mortar look strong and are to a certain degree but not against 200+ mile an hour winds. Plus you have the cave in factor of the materials falling in on those below.
All one can say is “ It was a bad decision, A basement can seem the safest place but depending what is on top of that basement, Feeding that area it can be fatal”
How did the much larger OKC school district manage to safely dismiss their students? Perhaps neighboring districts should ask for their plan. They dismissed two and a half hours before the storm struck, so there was ample time.
Sending kids to a basement with overhead water pipes was not a safe plan, obviously.
I thought with all the radar this was know for that day. I’m so upset I can’t even concentrate at work. The one thing I cannot handle is children dying it’s too much.
This was all very foreseeable.
We know people who tried to get their children out of the school 25 minutes before it was demolished. There’s no excuse for not releasing the children to those parents who showed up in time. The schools do not own the children, and parents should have both the ultimate authority and responsibility for their children.
That said, this discussion isn’t going to help anyone right now. There will be plenty of time later to hold the school leadership responsible. As for the individual teachers, it appears they heroically did everything possible to protect the children.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.