Not just tornadoes, but hurricanes and earthquakes kill and otherwise affect the poor disproportionately.

But in the specific case of Joplin, I think this has less to do with poverty and more to do with location. The tornado went right through a city of 50,000, hitting a hospital and a couple big box stores in addition to about a thousand houses and hundreds of other businesses.

Good Morning Charles,
I don't disagree with that logic. However, that applies to ANY natural catastrophe. Look at Hurricane Katrina and the Great Tsunami of 2004. The former hit one of the poorer great American cities. That, plus unsuitable levees (that's been known about for decades) rendered New Orleans and much of the coastal Deep South quite vulnerable.

As for the latter, it affected much of the underdeveloped east African, Indian subcontinental and SE Asian coasts. The poor, again were quite vulnerable. A lack of a comprehensive warning system added greatly to the tragedy as well.

As for Joplin, MO, my understanding is the death toll was extraordinarily high due to a rare multivortex tornado. Not all natural catastrophes are alike. The citizens did have a warning. But, there's nary a doubt that poverty and lack of technology contribute to the gravity of any natural disaster.

Even though we don't have tornadoes in Seattle (thus far) I would never live in a home without a basement. I think it's a midwestern thing that was beaten into my psyche.

If this were a socialist country, everybody would be living in trailers.

It's very telling that you propose poor people use their education to vote for someone who will presumably fix their problem rather than propose they use their education to fix it themselves.

@7: what education would that be?