. >> 300 miles from moore in a lab at texas tech university they make storm shelters a reality. >> what we have here is an air canon. it's called boomer. virtual potato launcher on steroids. >> it performance tests on a variety of buildings. some of them failed. through trial and error innovation came in the form of reinforcement and engineering. >> so should we load the canon? >> load the canon, okay. let's do that. >> wow. >> 103 mph. >> 103? it's completely fine. >> this particular wall is what we call double wide. you've got one wall of brick here and another wall of brick here. then there is a four-inch cavity full of concrete and reinforcement steel. >> pretty cool stuff here to discuss the complicated process scientists are going through in creating and testing these innovations. >> it was pretty amazing to seee the 2-4 lumber going through walls. that just shows how powerful the tornadoes can be, that they can lift massive objects like this. >> i'm wondering has there been any field testing of structures, and when might we see some of that based on this kind of design? >> well,

mimic the characteristics of tornado wind speeds. >> i'm at the national wind institute at texas tech university, where they can recreate tornados. >> darrell james designed and built a simmualator called vor tech. >> it allows us to repeatedly reproduce in a controlled pattern and understand what happens to thrusters. >> do you sit in the vortex? >> all the time. would you like to go. >> you'll leave me here on my own? >> you're good. >> i was wondering how powerful an ef3 could be. now i can just about imagine how terrifying a tornado could be. >> we are pleased to have shini somara join us from los angeles. i loved story. so the winds you stood in, 150 miles per hour, what did it feel like? >> it was a bliss for a mechanical engineer. it was powerful. >> how accurately can the institute really mimic an actual tornado? >> well, the tornado that we had in the vor tech was ef3. that is about halfway up the scale. the ef scale goes up to five. it's pretty fast. not the maximum that tornados can be, but enough to really measure the impact of damage on structure that they put inside the vor tech. >

. >> 300 miles from moore in texas tech university lab, they work to make it a reality. >> what we havee is an air cannon called boomer . virtual potato bottomer on steroids. >> pictures i've seen of the damage after a tornado is all about impacts. >> where wind really becomes an issue is that the debris opens up the building envelope, the walls, the roof. once you have that envelope opened, now you have got double the trouble. the most predominant projectile that we see in these storms is normally something like a two by four. >> what you tend to see coming out of this cannon is what you tend to see flying around. when a tornado is spinning? >> absolutely. we did shelter research for the national science foundation back in may, after the moore tornado. specifically, just to look for shelters in the storm path. >> the question now is not whether to rebuild, but how. >> we're smart engineers. we know how to design for wind speeds. and now, we know how to design for impact resistance. >> research is performed tests on a variety of building materials. some of them failed. through trial and

host: ashley, from texas tech university. caller: good morning. in your introduction, you referenced getting trained up for jobs. in d.c. this past semester and texas tech opened a new major, however, that means i have more time left in my undergraduate career. with the student loan balloon, what kind of reforms would we be seeing as a result of the situation with the cost of attending a public university continues to rise? guest: i wish there was an easy solution. cost of that type of education is rising faster than inflation. i wish i had a simple, easy answer. one of the things that the democrats pushed through on their reform of the student loan program was they pushed the private sector out of the business of being able to provide these types of loans. i do not see the wisdom in that. i think the competition, opportunity to have some private entities also offering these types of loans would be a good thing. ofwe can tackle the idea helping to drive down the cost of education. i wish i had a good, easy answer for you. i want people to be able t

host: ashley, from texas tech university. caller: good morning. our introduction, you referenced getting trained up for jobs. in d.c. this past semester and texas tech opened a new major, however, that means i have more time left in my undergraduate career. with the student loan balloon, what kind of reforms would we be seeing as a result of the situation with the cost of attending a public university continues to rise? guest: i wish there was an easy solution. cost of that type of education is rising faster than inflation. i wish i had a simple, easy answer. one of the things that the democrats pushed through on their reform of the student loan program was they pushed the private sector out of the business of being able to provide these types of loans. i do not see the wisdom in that. i think the competition, opportunity to have some private entities also offering these types of loans would be a good thing. ofwe can tackle the idea helping to drive down the cost of education. i wish i had a good, easy answer for you. i want people to be able to va

. >> i am in the national wind institute at texas tech university, where we recreate tornadoes. >> oh, absolutely all the time. >> you going to leave me here on my own? >> you are good. >> at this point, i was wondering how powerful an e.f. three would be. now i can just about imagine how terrifying a tornado can be. and we are pleased to have her join us now from los angeles. i love this story, so the winds you stood in 150 miles an hour, what did it feel like? >> well, for a mechanical engineer like me, it was absolutely bliss. it was powerful. 150 miles per hour is fast p moving air. how accurately can it mimic an actual tornado? well, the tornado that we had in that vortex was e.f. three. and that's about -- that's half way up the scale because the scale goes up to 5. so it's pretty vast. not the maximum that tornadoes can be, but enough to really measure the impact of damage on structures. >> so that's what they learned what else do they learn in this kind of lab? >> well, the purpose of the lab is to becauses the very complex bit of engineering. it's serjly it only took eight fa

this involved building new forms of construction based on the advice of texas tech university, and involved much thicker walls, and slightly different designs compared to conventional ways of building schools. it has to start from scratch, but some schools we visited one in the segment in oklahoma, they did use advice from the university to construct a gym that also doubles up as a community shelter. it seems to be very effective. we see that through the testing. >> well, i want to tease this, we don't want you to answer the question, but you're going to tell us what it's like to stand in front of an ef 3 tornado. it's good to see you. happy that you're still here. >> yes, for a fluid that was really fun. thank you. >> we'll be bam with the nation's weather forecast. >> every sunday night >> meteorologist: i'm dave warren with a look at the national forecast. freezing rain advisory as we see more rain coming in with air down below freezing. we had a little bit of that along with some snow. this is an area of moisture that is moving out. it's up over the great lakes. the warmer air is moving

university. so hinckley told his parents that he was going back to college. but at yale, not texas techto his parents how he's going to go to yale for a writing class that doesn't exist, and all the time spends stalking foster. he finds out where she lives, slipping notes under her door, on the phone with her. and he would take these calls. >> who is this? oh, no. who is this? who is this? >> this is john. >> who? oh, no. not you again. look, i really can't talk to you. okay? look, do me a really big favor. do you understand why i can't, you know, carry on these conversations with you, someone i don't know. you understand it's dangerous and it's not fair. all right? >> i understand that, it's just -- >> so you just don't ever want me calling. >> no. really nice talking to you. >> he started to yell at the recorder. hang up, hang up! because this is what we tell our wife or our daughter. you know, you hang up right away. >> really sad and pathetic calls. reaching out to this woman he idolized and wanted to be a part of. he gets in his mind, if i get the president of the united states, sh