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Regarding that, I found an article this morning on the lack of shelters. The percentage of structures that have them is actually far lower than I thought: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/...ildings-in-tornado-alley-lack-storm-shelters/

As for whether they've become more frequent -- not to my knowledge, but they've always been very common here so I can't say. Google searching it nets me answers all over the map.

Oh, no, no need to apologize haha. Personally I think there should be more public shelters than there are (not having any in OKC is insane!), and definitely more underground floors/cellars built into public places at least. Tornadoes happen so often here that it almost feels like they should be a requirement, but unfortunately it can be costly so as far as I know, most are built without them & leave the owner to invest in one later.

Well, there are indeed tornado shelters (although far fewer than you might expect -- Oklahoma City and the suburb of Moore have no public shelters to my knowledge) and warnings... We weren't taken by surprise per se. But it's not that simple, unfortunately.

Tornadoes develop and touch down so quickly that there's not much time to drive to a shelter. Generally, you've got to take shelter at the first place available. As soon as those sirens go up (and they do as soon as a tornado is known to be on the ground), it's best to drop what you're doing and take cover. Unfortunately, not all of us have storm cellars or basements, or live in close proximity to a shelter.
The weather teams on the news do an admirable job of tracking the storms and telling us when to get to shelter; they've got very good technology and can track tornadoes with impressive accuracy. But because they show up so quickly, the most people usually have time for is to hide in their own houses... Which isn't always enough.

It certainly wouldn't have been enough for me. I was alone with my dog at the time, and when the sirens went up we hid in the bathroom with couch pillows. If that tornado (iirc a mile wide EF4) had hit my house I'd probably be dead, and the thought still has me... Well to be honest, kind of freaked out. So I'm sorry if I sound kind of harsh or weird about this.

The safest place to hide during a tornado is underground, in your own storm cellar. People who live in mobile homes, happen to be out, or (like me) just don't have one are usually out of luck when it hits.

You can tell them you don't want to drive them anymore without being rude. I mean if you're worried about that, you could always say that it's not feasible to go out of your way to do it anymore (too busy/have things to do, or what have you), or that you (or your mother) would prefer you didn't do it anymore because of the damage to the car. You're basically doing them a favor by driving them to begin with, so as long as you're courteous about it I don't think you'll come off as rude haha.

I don't know if you wanted advice or just to vent so I'll just leave this under a cut

Spoiler

These people sound rather mean-spirited, to be perfectly honest. Having you take them to lunch and then leaving a firecracker in the car? That could have turned out worse than just a burnt seat.

They really shouldn't be doing that sort of thing; damage aside, even leaving garbage all over someone's car is awfully rude. You've no obligation to take people you don't trust to lunch every week. The ones who treat you with respect, sure, if you want to -- but if you feel you're being taken advantage of, don't. It's not fair to you to have to go out of your way for them, only for them to damage your (mother's) property. It's very kind of you to continue helping them after all that, but just be careful and take your own well-being into consideration too.

...Now I feel a little bad; I don't have a single current gen home console or portable, lmao. First world problems...