From the Kansas City Star: Fire Chief Gary Trulson arrived here Joplin, Mo., in 2004, one of the first things he noticed while looking for a home was that the town had very few basements.

Three years later, in 2007, Trulson wrote a report entitled “Safe Rooms, Providing Shelter in the Storm for Joplin Residents.” In it, he noted that even though Joplin lies squarely within tornado alley, it has few safe areas for residents to go in storms.

Trulson suggested in his report, done for the National Fire Academy, that there should be an area-wide initiative to make residents and homebuilders aware of the problem and to do something about it.

The report was not formally submitted to city officials, Trulson said, but it was incorporated into the city’s emergency management public education plan. Read the entire article here.