“Our administrators, staff, teachers and students put our crisis plan into action immediately. We monitored the weather throughout the day and when it was time to shelter, we did just that.”

Oklahoma officials say the current warning system provided enough time to prepare before the tornado hit. But many people lost everything they owned.

There is debate about whether all schools in Oklahoma should be required to have tornado shelters. Some say even the best built shelter might not have protected against Monday's tornado. The National Weather Service rated the tornado an EF-5. That is the most powerful kind of storm on the five-level scale that measures a tornado’s power. It was the second deadliest tornado in the United States since 2011, when 161 people were killed in Joplin, Missouri.

Join us next Tuesday more about tornadoes on the VOA Learning English program Science in the News.

That’s In The News. I’m Steve Ember.