“My only reservation I would have is who is going to be in charge of law enforcement and then when you put 1,500 or 1,600 people together from all these different backgrounds with varying amounts of food and other support -- I’m just trying to get my mind around all the problems they’re going to have with that.”

Jacque Pregont is president of the Atchison Chamber of Commerce, a business group. The organization hopes the shelter will bring in travelers who will spend money and improve the town’s economy -- disaster or not.

“I would hope that they are going to end up coming here and spending some time here and not just waiting for a catastrophic event.”

I’m Mike Richman.

Getting Close to Tornadoes

Weather experts are able to predict bad weather better than ever before thanks to satellites, high-altitude balloons and radar stations. But for many years these experts have incorrectly predicted tornado formation, giving false warnings about 75 percent of the time.

So, scientists are working to improve their tornado predictions. They are getting close to the large and dangerous wind storms to see how they form.

They believe that, if they know what a tornado looks like as it forms, they will lower their false prediction rate.

Jerilyn Watson reports.

Doppler is a type of radar that identifies weather conditions based on the flow and speed of objects through the air.