and joining me now is oklahoma insurance commissioner john doak. john, thank you for joining us. and i guess my first question is what is the general situation of folks living in tornado alley? obviously, the insurance industry, homeowners all know this is a possible risk. is insurance required? are most of these folks insured? are they going to be made whole? >> sure. absolutely. if they've got a mortgage, then insurance would most likely be required. we've done an educational campaign over the last year in the state of oklahoma to educate folks on the need of insurance after oklahoma's wildfires last year. we found out that there was a high percentage of our population in rural areas that did not have insurance, but i think it's going to be much different in this case coming through a rural metro area. i think it's going to be substantially different. and i think there's going to be thousands of claims here. and we're going to do our very best to make sure oklahomans understand their insurance policies from a consumer perspective and make sure the insurance companies fulfill th

john doak is the state insurance commissioner of oklahoma.ood to see you. >> good to see you. >> you warned earlier in the week that it will not be tolerated if oklahomans are taken advantage of. how do you control that? >> well, we have very good controls in process here. this isn't oklahoma's first rodeo. we have been through this before. here in moore, they have very good best practices with the city of moore. all licensed contractors have to be registered with the local city whether they are in state or out of state. that's going to be enforced very strictly by all law enforcement. we just had a meeting with the many of the insurers here. we had over 50, 60 of them there. we had the chief of police from oklahoma city. we had other law enforcement folks there. we instituted a badge. we have registered over 1800 licensed adjusters and brokers that have come in from out of state into oklahoma. oklahoma adjusters as well. they must be carrying this badge. it's got my signature on the back and has our anti-fraud number. our folks will be embed

but according to the state's own insurance commissioner, john doak, hallways can't protect against the strongest storms. >> it's not a safe place enough for kids in an f-5 tornado. 200 miles an hour plus winds. anything above ground, as we can see, is going to be taken off. >> reporter: in moore, mayor glenn lewis says he plans to push for new houses to have shelters or safe rooms. because what's the requirement right now? >> we don't have one and it's been a free market society. >> reporter: the mayor says 2,000 shelters were built in private homes but he didn't believe it was necessary to require them until now. >> who thought that you would have an f-5 tornado-- which are such a rare occurrence-- happen in the same place twice? and we just hope it doesn't happen again. >> reporter: alabama is the only state that requires safe spaces to be built in new schools. according to the national storm shelter association. scott, that law was passed after a tornado in 2007 that killed eight children. >> pelley: elaine, thank you very much. shelters did save lives at homes and so did the sirens

john doak, oklahoma's insurance commissioner, he's joining me now. good morning, sir. nice to meet you. >> nice to meet you. >> i hate the circumstances upon which we're meeting. in terms of the sheer numbers, somewhere between 12,000 to 13,000 homes damaged or destroyed. >> those are the numbers we're hearing as well. yet to be totally confirmed by ems, emergency management groups, we're seeing just yesterday alone, we know at the insurance checkpoint command center, they processed 4,000 claims yesterday as well. >> are you a native okie? >> i am. born and raised in chrome, not the first time we've been through this. >> not the first time. help people understand who are not from oklahoma, the process that these people, these families have to go through. their homes are begun or destroyed and have to file these claims. >> right, u.s. a simple process, we have it down to a soons here. >> do you? >> the first ever national tornado center in oklahoma city. two months ago. partnered with the emergency management, national association of insurance commissioners sponsored th

. >> hello, my name is john doak, i'm the oklahoma state insurance commissioner. couple things. our hearts go out to the families who lost loved ones and especially the children. you can't replace a child, but you can replace a home or car, so we -- these are just items that can't be compared. we've learned a couple of lessons from governor fallin's leadership and albert's leadership here in oklahoma city, and we've put these, all of these best practices into action to be able to partner with the governor's office and albert's office to be prepared for something, for an event just like this from the insurance perspective which is very unique in the insurance industry. we have an insurance command center set up at moore baptist church, 301 northeast 27th. we are, we'll have a press conference this afternoon at 4 related to specific insurance needs and specific companies to get their message out to meet the needs of oklahoma consumers that have been impacted. it's a one-stop shop for any questions. the oklahoma insurance department consumer services will be on site 24 hours a day