Welcome to CNN Student News. Current events from middle and high school classrooms. No commercials. This Tuesday May 12th, Americans from part of South Dakota and Iowa stretching down to Arkansas and Texas are recovering from severe wether. Over the weekend, fierce storms swept through the country's mid-section. At least 5 people were killed, dozens were injured and several were still missing yesterday afternoon. More than 70 tornados were reported. One of the area's hardest hit was the northeast Texas town Avent, Population 2300+. A fire marshal there says roughly 30% of Avent was damaged. The town's schools were close after getting this kind of damage on Sunday. The district's super intendant said they felt blessed this did not happen during a school day. High school in Iowa also lost most of its roof. Apparently tornados weren't the only problem. The storms brought sudden flush flooding in the areas of northern Texas. Helicopters were called in to air lift people when flood waters cover the roads nearby.

So now the EF scale, the Enhanced fujita scale , starts at 0 and goes only to 5. Anything above 200mph is considered a EF5 tornado. If you have a 0 you are gonna lose shingles. A 1 you may lose couple of boards on the roof. A 2 you lose all the windows and maybe even a wall. A 3, EF3 you will lose a couple of walls on the outside, but there will still be a part of home standing. A 4, most of the home is gone but you still the refrigerator, you still see the closet and you still see the bathroom. EF 5, you cannot find the house. it is completely gone. We don't know how big that Fujita scale would be, how big that tornado would be, only after we look at the damage.

The greatest threat of tornado is being hit by something at the tornado is moving. If you are outside and if you are not protected inside, you can hit by a 150mph 2 by 4. You are going to be killed. You need to be inside at the lowest level, somewhere in the middle of the home away from windows. When you hear the word Warning and you hear your county, that is when you need to take cover. When you hear the word Watch, that means something might happen today. Let's have a plan. When you hear the word Warning it is too late to make a plan, you need to already have the plan.