1999 Tornado

In 1999, the City of Midwest City was hit with an F4 tornado that was only slightly less intense than its F5 rating as it passed through the City of Moore. One hundred and eighty-eight homes were destroyed and three lives were lost. Community shelters were overwhelmed and people’s lives endangered while they tried to reach the community shelters as the tornado was bearing down on Midwest City. It became evident that there was a need to not only to make the location of private storm shelters more readily available to emergency responders but to greatly increase the number of private storm shelters within the City limits.