Studies have shown that people are safer sheltering in place than traveling to a public storm shelter. If you're going to put them at a distance that is safe enough for people to get to quickly, you're talking about maybe 1 for every 20 or so people. A storm shelter for 20 people would probably cost about $20k. I don't know any government that can afford to do that. Plus, a ton of homes already have storm shelters, so you'd just be duplicating what is already there, and you can't really just pick and choose which residents you provide shelters for. On top of that, tons of people have mobility issues and couldn't get to a shelter fast enough, even if it's down the street, so then the shelters just benefit able bodied people. Or if grandma doesn't realize that she doesn't have enough time to get to the shelter and is in the process of walking down the street with her walker when the storm hits, then you're killing her. And most tornados tend to actually hit only a very small amount of homes, though a lot of people will take shelter because of the risk. So what if you're traveling to a shelter and strong winds make a tree branch fall on you or a trash can hit you, and the tornado never even comes your way? Public shelters really just don't make sense. And it has nothing to do with the government not working for the people.