Case Study · Tornado · 2013
May 20, 2013. An EF5 tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma — the same city an F5 had destroyed in 1999. 24 people died. Seven were third-graders at Plaza Towers Elementary, sheltering in their school's designated tornado safety area. The safety area was an interior hallway. The school had no underground shelter. In the heart of Tornado Alley, in a city that had been struck by an F5 fourteen years earlier, the school was not prepared for the storm that everyone in that city knew could come.
Moore, Oklahoma · May 20, 2013
On May 20, 2013, with four school days left before summer break, Moore Public Schools administrators were monitoring severe weather forecasts for the afternoon. They knew the threat. Moore, Oklahoma is the most tornado-struck city in the United States — it had been directly hit by an F5 in 1999 that killed 36 people and destroyed 1,800 homes in the same area. The district was preparing for dismissal complications if weather deteriorated near the end of the day. The K12 Dive account of Moore's response documents what their administration was managing: "high winds, thunderstorms and hail to roll through the area around dismissal time." At 2:56 PM, an EF5 tornado touched down west-southwest of Newcastle, Oklahoma. It traveled 17 miles through the southern Oklahoma City suburb, reaching Moore at approximately 3:01 PM and widening to 1.3 miles across at its peak. Its winds reached approximately 200 mph. It took a direct path through Plaza Towers Elementary School.
The children at Plaza Towers had conducted tornado drills. Most knew the procedure. When the warning was issued, students moved to the school's designated tornado safety areas — interior rooms and hallways at the center of the building. Most of them survived. Seven third-graders, sheltering in a classroom addition on the periphery of the building, did not. The Red Cross account documents what happened: the tornado struck the school directly and demolished it. The seven children were in their designated safety area — the school had identified this as the correct location — but the structure they were in was inadequate to survive a direct EF5 strike. It was not a storm shelter. It was an interior room in standard construction, which is appropriate guidance for most tornado situations but insufficient for a building in the direct path of the strongest tornado classification.
May 20, 2013
Date
24
Deaths
7 children
At Plaza Towers
377
Injured
EF5
Intensity
In the aftermath, the NIST investigation found that 2,400 buildings were damaged or destroyed, including two elementary schools and the only hospital in Moore. The CBS News account of the subsequent litigation documents that Moore Public Schools settled the lawsuit brought by the families of the seven children who died — accepting $14,000 per family — with the school district acknowledging that the classroom addition where the children were killed had been "defectively built." The new Plaza Towers Elementary that opened in 2014 has FEMA-approved safe rooms built into its design. By 2019, 31 of 35 schools in the Moore Public Schools district had storm shelters. The previous number: fewer, and not the ones that mattered most on May 20, 2013.
The Science
Think of the difference between an interior room and a safe room the same way you'd think about the difference between a life jacket and a submarine: both keep you from drowning in certain conditions, but one of them works when the ship is going down and one doesn't. An interior room — a bathroom, hallway, or closet at the center of a building — provides protection against tornado debris and partial structural failure in most tornado events. It protects against the EF0 through EF3 events that make up the vast majority of all tornadoes. A FEMA-certified safe room — reinforced concrete or steel construction, anchored to the foundation, with a reinforced door — protects against EF5 winds. The difference matters most in the exact scenario Moore 2013 represents: a direct hit from the strongest tornado classification on a school building in standard construction.
Moore, Oklahoma sits in an area of Oklahoma frequently affected by long-track supercell thunderstorms moving northeast from the Oklahoma panhandle and western Oklahoma. The geography — flat terrain, moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, and a consistent storm track direction — makes Moore statistically one of the most tornado-prone cities in the United States. The 1999 Bridge Creek-Moore F5 struck from the same general direction, along a similar track, and devastated the same general area. The fact that another F5-equivalent storm struck fourteen years later was not a statistical anomaly. It was the expected long-run outcome for a city in that location. Building schools without storm shelters in Moore is not just a budgetary decision — it is a risk acceptance decision in one of the highest-risk tornado environments in the country.
The Red Cross account of the 2013 Moore tornado notes that most of the Plaza Towers school's students and teachers survived, "in part, by the numerous tornado drills they had practiced through the years." The drill — move to the designated interior area, cover your head, stay away from windows — is the behavioral preparation that turns a warning into a protective action. Most children who followed the drill survived. The seven who died were in a classroom addition with structural deficiencies that the drill could not overcome. The lesson is not that drills don't work — they demonstrably did. It's that drills protect you in the structures where you are, and the structures matter.
Timeline
01
May 3, 1999: An F5 tornado strikes Moore, Oklahoma, killing 36 people and destroying 1,800 homes. The tornado is notable as the first F5 to hit the Oklahoma City metro and produces the highest wind speed ever measured on Earth by Doppler radar (301 mph). Moore rebuilds. The question of whether schools in Moore should have storm shelters is not resolved to a yes by 1999.
02
2:56 PM CDT: EF5 tornado touches down west-southwest of Newcastle, OK. Reaches Moore at ~3:01 PM. 1.3 miles wide at peak, ~200 mph winds. Directly strikes Plaza Towers Elementary School and Briarwood Elementary School. The K12 Dive account: "Some of the district's schools — including Briarwood and Plaza Towers — lacked a storm shelter." Students follow tornado drills. The building matters more than the drill.
03
~3:01–3:20 PM: EF5 passes directly through Plaza Towers Elementary. Most students and teachers survive by following drills and sheltering in interior rooms. Seven third-graders in a classroom addition are killed — the addition had "defectively built" structural connections per the subsequent litigation. 24 total deaths in Moore. 2,400 buildings damaged or destroyed. The only hospital in Moore is destroyed.
04
2013–2019: Moore passes a bond to put storm shelters in all city schools. New Plaza Towers Elementary (2014) includes FEMA-approved safe rooms that also serve as practice facilities and classrooms. By 2019, 31 of 35 Moore Public Schools district schools have shelters. The question "should Moore schools have storm shelters" is answered definitively — not by policy, but by the deaths of seven eight-year-olds.
Human Decisions
What worked
The Red Cross account explicitly credits tornado drills practiced over years as a partial explanation for why most Plaza Towers students survived. The behavioral response — move quickly, take the correct position, cover your head — was automatic because it had been practiced. The K12 Dive account documents the administration's position: "That clock will stay with me forever. It is very, very important for me and my team to move forward but also to never forget." Drills are not sufficient without adequate shelter, but adequate shelter without drills is also incomplete. Moore's post-2013 school shelters are combined with continued drill practice.
The News9 account documents that Moore passed a bond to install storm shelters in all city schools after 2013. By 2019, 31 of 35 schools in the Moore Public Schools district had shelters, which double as classrooms, practice facilities, and lecture halls. The Fox News account of the rebuilt Plaza Towers notes that every room in the school's new FEMA-approved safe area has steel-beam reinforced walls and that the building was designed with a permanent safe room that did not exist in the original structure. The community decided the question of shelter with a bond measure — a democratic, community-funded answer to a structural gap that had cost seven lives.
What failed
The NIST investigation found that Plaza Towers Elementary had no underground storm shelter despite being located in Moore, Oklahoma — which had been directly struck by an F5 in 1999 and is one of the most statistically tornado-exposed cities in the United States. The CBS News account of the litigation documents the Moore Public Schools settlement: $14,000 per family for the seven children killed in a structure described as "defectively built." The decision to build schools in Moore without storm shelters — made over decades by successive administrators, budget committees, and school boards — was a cost decision that became a casualty decision on May 20, 2013.
The K12 Dive account of the disaster is specific: the seven children died in "Plaza Towers Elementary's gym when it collapsed." The Fox News account of the subsequent settlement notes the children were in "a classroom addition where the children were killed" that families alleged was "defectively built." The gap between a school's "designated tornado safety area" — which is correctly an interior room or corridor for events that don't involve a direct EF5 hit — and a FEMA-certified safe room is measurable in lives when the event falls in the EF5 category.
The cascade lesson
Moore 2013 is the case study that makes the abstract question of school storm shelters concrete and irrefutable. Moore, Oklahoma is among the most tornado-prone cities in the United States. It had been struck by an F5 14 years before. It had schools without underground storm shelters. Seven children followed their tornado drill correctly, sheltered in the wrong kind of room, and died. The community answered the question with a bond measure and 31 shelters by 2019. The question "should schools in tornado-prone areas have storm shelters?" has been answered by the death toll — the remaining question is whether the community will act before or after the event that makes the answer undeniable. Moore waited for the event. The lesson is not unique to schools — it applies to every building in tornado country where people shelter: the shelter has to be capable of surviving the event it's designed for, not just a room that feels safe in the absence of a test.
What Changed
Following the May 20, 2013 tornado, Moore Public Schools passed a bond measure for school storm shelters across the district. The rebuilt Plaza Towers Elementary opened in August 2014 with FEMA-approved safe rooms integrated into the building design — rooms that double as classrooms and practice facilities and are also protective enough to shelter students in an EF5 event. The Fox News account of the rebuilt school describes steel-beam reinforced walls, FEMA-approval, and helmets stored in every classroom for additional protection. By 2019, 31 of the district's 35 schools had shelters. The four that were not yet completed were scheduled for completion by end of July 2019, according to Moore Public Schools.
The 2013 Moore tornado renewed discussions at the Oklahoma state level about mandatory school storm shelter requirements. The debate involves significant cost considerations — retrofitting an existing school building with a FEMA-certified safe room can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and a full underground shelter for a large school is in the millions. FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funds a significant portion of safe room construction, but matching funds and administrative capacity vary across districts. The policy gap — between communities that have funded shelters and those that haven't — remains the operational vulnerability that Moore 2013 made impossible to ignore.
What You Can Do Now
The lesson from Moore is not "don't shelter in schools." It's "know what kind of shelter you're in, and work to improve it before you need it."
Most schools and workplaces have designated tornado safety areas — interior rooms or corridors that follow standard tornado safety guidance. Some have FEMA-certified safe rooms that provide significantly higher protection in direct hits. Ask your school district, employer, or county emergency management office whether there is a certified safe room in your building and where it is. Knowing the difference between a designated interior area and a certified safe room is not alarmism — it's understanding the protection level available to you.
Tornado shelter guideThe Red Cross credit for tornado drills at Plaza Towers is real and specific: most of the school's students and teachers survived because the drill response was practiced and automatic. Tornado drills in schools have saved lives in every major school tornado event. In your home, the equivalent is a practiced response — knowing your shelter location without having to decide in the moment, having a flashlight accessible, having household members know where to go without instruction. Practice the drill once a year, before tornado season opens.
Tornado preparedness guideFEMA provides design guidance for above-ground safe rooms that can be installed in homes without basements. These reinforced rooms — built to ICC 500 standards — are designed to protect against EF5 winds and are available as pre-manufactured units or can be built into new or existing construction. FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program provides funding for residential safe rooms in communities with hazard mitigation plans. If you live in a high-tornado-risk area without a basement, a FEMA safe room is the Moore 2013 lesson applied at the household level.
Home resilience guideMoore passed its school shelter bond after seven children died. The bond was 100% the right decision — and it could have been made in 2000, after the 1999 F5. The FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program can fund 75% of safe room construction costs in communities with approved hazard mitigation plans. The conversation about school safe rooms in tornado-prone areas is a public safety conversation that parents, school boards, and elected officials should have in advance of the event that makes it urgent. Ask your school district what shelter options exist and what the plan is for buildings that don't have them.
Community resilience guideMost people know their home tornado shelter location but haven't thought through their workplace or children's school options. Before tornado season, visit or call your school district's emergency management office: Does the school have a storm shelter? Where is it? What is the access procedure during a warning? For your workplace, identify the most interior room on the lowest floor. The five-minute investment in knowing this before a tornado watch is issued is the equivalent of what Moore did after 2013 at the individual level.
Tornado safety for schools and workplacesTornado case study series
Tri-State 1925 covers no warnings. Tuscaloosa 2011 covers shelter gaps during a heavily warned event. Joplin 2011 covers warning fatigue. Bridge Creek 1999 covers the world-record wind speed event and the limits of even the best warning system. Together, they document every major failure mode in tornado preparedness.
Full tornado case study seriesSources