After the Storm
Plans for disaster safety come too late

It was a year ago today that a devastating F2 tornado hit downtown Fort Worth.

It was a year ago today that residents of the city began picking up the pieces.

As with any tragedy to hit a community, whether a natural disaster or a school shooting, the devastating tornado that tore through downtown Fort Worth, brought neighbors, coworkers and strangers together.

Nobody ever expected a tornado to swirl through the city, just as nobody ever expected that teen-agers would be shooting each other in their middle and high schools.

However, these disasters are real and cannot be ignored.

In Fort Worth, citizens dropped everything to help out their fellow North Texans after the tornado. They cleaned up, offered comfort to victims, started new programs to insure safety from severe weather and began promoting disaster plans at children’s schools and their parent’s workplaces.

As far as violence goes, society was quick to point fingers and assess ways to prevent situations.

For instance, Georgia, New Hampshire and Vermont already have new laws regarding bullying, one of the speculated causes of school violence, and Colorado, home of the deadliest school shooting at Columbine High School, is considering similar legislation.

It’s easy to see the connection between school shootings, workplace tragedies and natural disasters: they bring communities together and allow people to step forward and make changes.

The problem is that it takes such tragedies to bring these communities of people together to make such changes.

That’s not how it should be.

There should have been disaster plans in place for citizens of Fort Worth. These plans should have been known about well before a tornado passed through.

While it is impressive how well communities come together in the aftermath of tragedies, it is far outweighed by the disappointment that nothing was done sooner.

Until society takes the responsibility of protecting its citizens from tragedies before they occur, nobody has the right to say they did everything they could.

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