Oklahoma tornado: Mayor of Moore pushes for shelter law

Glenn Lewis said he would propose an ordinance requiring a reinforced shelter to be built in everynew home. Volunteers are now engaged in a recovery mission - delivering supplies and helping people find accommodation. The White House says thatPresident Barack Obama will travel to Moore on Sunday. The Oklahoma medical examiner's office said 23 of the 24 victims had now been identified and that 10of them were children. Disaster centres Mr Lewis said he would propose the ordinance in the next few days and wasconfident it would pass thesix-member city council. The houses are broken (and the cars, and the school, and the street signs), but the people are not. The law would require a storm shelter or safe roomin all single- and multi-family homes and could be in place in a few months. "We'll try to get it passed as soon as I can," Mr Lewis told CNN. An underground safe roomcan cost several thousanddollars. More than 100 schools in Oklahoma had been provided with state-funded safe rooms. But Plaza Towers Elementary - where sevenof the children killed in the tornado died - and one other school hit by the storm, Briarwood Elementary, did not. The tornado ripped the roof off Plaza Towers Elementary and knocked down walls as students and teachers cowered in hallways and bathrooms. The tornado, which the National Weather Service (NWS) listed as an EF-5 - the most powerful type on the Fujita scale - destroyed entire blocks of Moore, an Oklahoma City suburb of 56,000 people. The twister packed winds of at least 200mph (320km/h). Mr Lewis said he did not expect the death toll of 24 to rise. Some 237 people were known to have been injured. US media reaction "One day at a time" is the headline in the Oklahoman online, over a banner aerial picture of the rubble ofdevastated homes. When Moore gets hit"we kick back" it quotes defiant residents as saying asthey pick up the pieces. Oklahoma City's Journal Record shows Governor Mary Fallin flying in a helicopter over the devastation in Moore to illustrate its report that the state legislature proposed providing $45m (£30m)from the Rainy Day Fund for relief efforts. Local news channel KFOR-TV reports theheart-rending story ofa single father who searched all night for his daughter only to find she had been killed at Plaza Towers Elementary School. Further afield, the New York Times carries a front-page picture gallery showingresidents reacting to the destruction. It goeson to describe the minutes before the tornado struck in PlazaTowers - a teacher huddling pupils into theshelter of a bathroom as the sirens wailed. In an opinion piece, USA Today suggeststhat, while forecasts and sirens undoubtedly saved many lives, more reinforced shelters should be built. Oklahoma tornado:Zoomable image On Wednesday, the Oklahoma medical examiner's office said that all the children who died had now been identified - they ranged in age from four months to nine years. Medical examiner's spokesman Amy Elliott saidofficials were still trying to contact the relatives of eight of the victims. Hundreds of volunteer workers and federal officials have fanned out across the suburb to deliver food and other supplies to residents whose homes had been swept away. Disaster centres have been set up and help given to people to assess what they have lost and what their immediate needsare. Jerry Lojka, a spokesman for the Oklahoma emergency services, told Reuters news agency on Wednesday that search-and-rescue dog teams would continue their work"to be sure nothing is overlooked", but he added: "There's going to be more of a transition to recovery." Craig Fugate, of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), told MSNBC: "Right now it's about getting people a place to stay thathave lost their homes. So we're going to start going neighbourhood to neighbourhood and talking to people and seeing what they're going to need." Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitanohas arrived in Moore to monitor the assistance being provided to first responders. At a press conference she urged people in need to register with Fema so that they could get assistance. Ms Napolitano said Fema would be in Moore long after the television cameras had left. Residents are to be allowed back to what remains of their homes from 15:00 local time (21:00GMT) on Wednesday. One resident, Curtis Carver, was waiting for the go-ahead to return. He told Agence France-Presse: "It was my home, my kids' home. Now it's gone. There's nothing left. It's a pile of sticks... and they're keeping me away." Tornado's cost The NWS said the twister'spath was 17 miles (27km) long and 1.3 miles wide andit battered Moore for about45 minutes on Monday afternoon. Residents were given 16 minutes' warning before the tornado touched down - officials said such advisories were usually issued eight to 10 minutes ahead of a twister. Oklahoma insurance assessors have put the estimate of the damage caused at more than $2bn (£1.31bn).