Page 5 - John Doak News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Private insurance in the face of such catastrophic loss is enough. and joining me now is oklahoma insurance commissioner john doak. john, thank you for joining us. and i guess my first question is what is the general situation of folks living in tornado alley? obviously, the insurance industry, homeowners all know this is a possible risk. is insurance required? are most of these folks insured? are they going to be made whole? >> sure. absolutely. if they've got a mortgage, then insurance would most likely be required. we've done an educational campaign over the last year in the state of oklaho...

victims were counted twice in the initial chaos. the monster tornado has now officially been deemed to reach ef5 stat nus at least one area. according to survey crews, which estimated peak winds of 210 miles per hour. its force, get this, is estimated to have been 8 to 600 times greater than the atomic bomb which exploded in hiroshima. the storm system initially created an ef0 tornado touching down at 2:56 yesterday afternoon just 16 minutes after the first warning was sounded. the funnel quickly intensified and within four miles and just ten minutes later had reached category 4. its...

destroyed and 33,000 people have been affected. the mayor says the damage total could top $2 billion. the state medical examiner tells us there were 24 deaths, two of them were infants-- four months old and seven months old. most of the children who died were this schools, and today parents are asking why those schools don't have shelters. here's elaine quijano. >> reporter: this is where you road out the storm? >> it is. >> reporter: helen grant road out the tornado in her neighbor's underground shelter in moore. she thought her two daughters were also in a shelter at their nearby e...

a disparity. >> reporter: eight children were killed monday when the tornado destroyed two schools. neither had a shelter. there is no state law in oklahoma requiring schools to have safe rooms or tornado shelters, despite the increased risk of tornadoes. albert ashwood, oklahoma's director of emergency management, says the state has built safe rooms in about 100 schools but it's costly. >> most of these projects have been anywhere between $600,000 to a million dollars and they've usually all been applied to brand-new construction of new schools. >> i don't think you can put a price ...