"National standards should be set for building construction, storm shelters and emergency communications to reduce death and damage from tornados, a federal agency that studied the deadly 2011 tornado in Joplin, Missouri, recommended on Thursday."
"The National Institute of Standards and Technology said 135 of the 161 deaths from the May 22, 2011 tornado resulted from building failure. The EF-5 tornado was the deadliest single tornado in the United States since official records were first kept in 1950, the agency said.
The study was the most detailed ever conducted after a tornado, the agency said, and comes in the wake of Midwest tornadoes early this week that caused $1 billion in damage and killed six people in Illinois and two in Michigan.
The Joplin tornado, late on a Sunday afternoon, damaged more than 8,000 homes and other buildings. People died in commercial, retail and residential structures due to lack of emergency shelters and basements. About 82 percent of Joplin homes do not have basements because of soil conditions."
Kevin Murphy reports for Reuters November 22, 2013.
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