When the tornado sirens went off some people in Wichita's Plainview neighborhood, where the homes are inexpensively built, say they had nowhere safe to go.
"When (the sirens) go off, these people scatter in every direction," Plainview resident Dennis Clark says.
But it's a very different story fifty miles east in the Butler County town of Beaumont, where everybody has a key to the town's storm shelter.
"It's very important," Beaumont resident Willard French says. "Most of these places don't have a basement."
While most Kansas towns don't have specially built shelters like Beaumont's, most of the cities surrounding Wichita do have designated safe areas in sturdy buildings where people without basements are directed to go. Some Plainview residents wonder why Wichita doesn't do that.
Essentially, the response from the city is that when you compare a city of a few hundred or a few thousand to a city the size of Wichita, you are talking apples and oranges.
A city spokesperson says the biggest reason is traffic. It's easier to get around quick in a small town. If Wichitans were told to get in their cars and drive to designated locations, the city says the drive time and traffic congestion would put them in greater danger than just riding out the storm at home.
The city also points out that basements are common in Wichita. They're not common in the Plainview neighborhood though, where residents say something needs to be done.
