July 14, 2010 For 18 horrific hours on April 3, 1974, the
largest and most cataclysmic tornado on record for a single
24-hour period took North America by storm. Actually, it was 148
tornadoes, which spun through and sacked 13 states and one
Canadian province, ravaging some 900 square miles and killing
148 people. An iconic photo snapped in the tragedy's aftermath
speaks the proverbial thousand words: amid a landscape
devastated, and houses crushed like eggshells, one thing
remained intact, standing erect and defying nature's wrath: an
interior bathroom of a single house, whose walls had not been
connected to the rest of the house. The photo demonstrated how a
single room can withstand the wrath of a tornado and serve as a
safe haven. A consortium of government officials and academics
are now working to raise awareness about the life-saving
capabilities of storm shelters. The team is a who's who of
researchers and atmospheric scientists and includes the
Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology D