CNN news 2013-05-28 加文本

cnn news 2013-05-28

CARL AZUZ, cnn ANCHOR: Hi, I`m Carl Azuz. Welcome to cnn STUDENT NEWS. In yesterday`s special edition we asked you to share your thoughts about this week`s deadly tornado in Oklahoma. From Rebecca, "We can`t stop this. But we can try our best to work on helping the victims and repairing the damage. And from Jessica, "Stay strong, stay together and hold on, because Oklahoma is getting on the road to recovery. That road is certain to be a long one. As people return to their homes, they are starting to rebuild. Insurance officials think the tornado might have caused more than $2 billion in damages. Chris Cuomo examined the power of the storm.

CHRIS CUOMO, cnn CORRESPONDENT: We`re going to take you through the tornado`s path from beginning to end. If you look down here, you`re going to see a brown line, starts with this debris field, it starts going in this direction. That is actually the tornado`s trail, and as you see, it`s going to get much more dramatic as we get near populated area. You literally can trace with your finger a line where the tornado wind, the path is completely obvious. It`s about a block and a half line, and you notice it just by seeing everything that`s destroyed.

Right now we`re flying at 2500 feet above the ground, scientists say that debris of the tornado (inaudible) ten times as high as we are right now into the air. Look at the trees. It looks like people pulled them up and laid them down there just like they were weeding their garden. But those are huge old (inaudible) trees.

Cars are just littered along the trail. They were never there, they weren`t parked here, they were tossed like toys. This part of the community really shows you the randomness and intensity of the tornado. Some homes are just completely (inaudible). And in a block away, they`ve been spared. And this part of the debris trail ends at a school where children lost their lives.

AZUZ: To protect themselves during the storm, some people were in the storm shelters in their homes, this Youtube video shows what it looked like when one Oklahoma family came out of its shelter.

The mayor of Moore, Oklahoma, the city that was hit the worst by this tornado says he is going to push for a new law. It would require that any new home has to be built with either storm shelter or a safe room. The safe room was all that was left standing when the tornado hit this family`s home in Alabama in 2011. The house was destroyed, but the family stayed inside their room. These special rooms and shelters aren`t luxurious, they have one purpose to keep people alive and Gary Tuchman shows us how.

GARY TUCHMAN, cnn CORRESPONDENT: The people who lived in this house that was destroyed, survived. They survived because they left well in advance. But if they didn`t leave well in advance, they would have survived also because they had this heavy metal storm shelter. I want to show you how it works. You open the door, and you take a look inside. And you see it`s very cramped inside, there`s not much room, but plenty of room to survive. Walk down the steps with your family, you could probably fit seven or eight people and fit important things in here: clothing, pictures, valuables, you come in and then you just shut the door.

And you`re safe and sound as the tornado goes above you. There is no doubt the people would have survived if they went inside the shelter. When the storm`s over, you open it up, and you all come out. One thing to keep in mind, you may say wow, the rubble falls on this, how do you get out? Well, you don`t lift it up, you slide it, and you slide it under here. Now, if the rubble does fall on top of here, lots of rubble, you may not be able to slide it, but then you`re alive and presumably you`ve told your relatives that you`re in here, and they tell rescuers, and they come and they rescue you.

Now, one thing you might wonder, why don`t schools in the tornado belt in Oklahoma and Texas and Kansas all have storm shelters, all have basements. Well, we should point out, it`s not a law, and the fact is, many school districts say it`s just not economically feasible to have these. They cost several thousands dollars, these personal shelters.