I'm so glad you heard from her!
IMO, it should be a law that you MUST have a tornado basement/shelter if you live out there. The fact that anyone would live in an area that is known for tornadoes, and not have a basement/shelter just blows my mind. As sad as it is, I think people adopted a "it won't happen to me" mentality because they had been lucky for a long time, and the tornadoes had mostly missed the populated areas. I hope that this disaster will cause people to realize just how bad it can be, and why they should be required to have a shelter. Seriously, it's not that hard. Most houses on the east cost have a basement, and we don't even have tornadoes for the most part. It would save a lot of lives.