Tornado summit spins up new ideas

It's obvious to get things like the Red Cross, insurance agents, and meteorologists involved when dealing with tornadoes, but at the 2nd annual National Tornado Summit in Oklahoma City, the idea of getting private businesses into the mix was introduced.

Summit organizer Keli Cain says Louisiana emergency managers have been getting contributions from private entities when dealing with hurricanes, and she said the same idea would work well in dealing with tornado-related disasters too.

"Whether it's department stores, the telecommunications industry, just everyone out there, bringing those people together as another partner," Cain said.

She said they've already started to reach out to different businesses in Oklahoma to tell them about the idea and get them involved.

Another big topic at the summit was the psychology of storms.

Specifically, they looked at the reasons why people sometimes fail to respond to storm warnings and why they sometimes are compelled to take action and seek shelter.

"Is it trust in your local weatherman, is it trust in the information from the National Weather Service, y'know what are the different things that cause people to actually take action?" Cain said.