Growing frequency in severe weather along with civil unrest has renewed national interest in school tornado shelters. Children are truly our greatest asset and they are facing new and evolving threats. Sporadic tornadoes are touching down from New England to the Deep South. Maniacal shooters are once again roaming hallways following a brief reprieve in schoolhouse violence during the coronavirus lockdown. Don’t our children deserve a safe and nurturing environment that is conducive to learning and not wanton destruction and chaos? U.S. Safe Room’s commercial bunkers and safe rooms can provide turnkey protection hundreds of students. Our steel-welded bunkers are also engineered and installed with minimal disturbance to existing infrastructure.
Tornados, and by greater extension severe weather in general, are seeping into every corner of America. Regions once thought to be immune from these killer cyclones are witnessing first-hand the pure carnage and destruction of these oscillating threats. Meteorologists nationwide agree: killer twisters are no longer just reserved for Tornado Alley. As twisters continue to invade far flung neighborhoods, many community leaders have heeded these warnings by investing in secure school tornado shelters. Other school systems have not followed instep. Instead, they outwardly defying logic in this disturbing trend of dismissing vetted science.
Don’t Tempt Mother Nature by Skimping on Storm Protection
Building isn’t cheap, especially in today’s market. Land values continue to skyrocket, and building materials are soaring to unprecedented heights. Land isn’t exactly low-priced either. As a result of astronomical costs, school officials are city councils are hesitant to break ground on new school projects. Their reluctance is well-founded albeit a short-sighted. At the end of the day, they aren’t footing the bill for any new construction. It’s the taxpayers who must pick up the tab for school additions. And we all know what happens if elected officials don’t follow the whims of taxpayers. One school in Erie, Pa has found itself at odds with county building inspectors about the required inclusion of a tornado shelter for a new building project.
Cathedral Prep is seeking a variance that would allow the school to build a $12.5 million addition without including a tornado shelter. In denying the variance, the city’s appeal board cited the International Building Code, which mandates a tornado shelter for all new school buildings and additions. The prep school countered the city’s decision by arguing that a tornado shelter is unnecessary considering Erie hasn’t been hit by a massive tornado in more than 70 years. Furthermore, the school argued there haven’t been any tornadoes “that could generate wind gusts up to the 250 mph required to mandate a storm shelter.”
School Tornado Shelters for All Possible Threats
We understand the school’s reluctance to build a new tornado shelter in light of the incoming $12.5 million tab. But how can you put a price on the safety of students? Lack of precedence for killer tornadoes isn’t a compelling argument either. Locations even further north than Erie, Pa, including Maine are now seeing one or two tornadoes annually. Ohio, which has quickly emerged has the Midwest’s new epicenter for dangerous tornadoes, is only a few short hours away. If meteorologists are correct in predicting that Tornado Alley will continue to shift toward the east, Erie, Pa could one day become the nation’s new twister hot spot. For a small fraction of the $12.5 million new construction price tag, school officials could tack on a large tornado shelter to benefit future generations of students. All considering, this is a rather nominal fee for decades of secured protection.
