There is no doubt that a tornado shelter costs more than normal construction, both in design fees as well as the cost of the construction. Many say that tornadoes occur so infrequently they it is hard to justify the cost. Typically, those are people that have not been affected by one of the wind events, regardless of the intensity. There are eight sets of parents in Enterprise, Alabama, and seven sets in Moore, Oklahoma that lost children to one of the events while the kids were as school. Would they say that the cost of a tornado shelter would have been worth it? You bet they would and they have.
So let’s put the shelter cost into perspective. Currently, the FAA has established that when you step on an airplane, your life is worth $6.9 million. When we design a school shelter for 600 occupants, per the FAA, the total amount of lives would be worth $4.14 Billion (with a “B”). If this shelter has a premium cost of $500,000 – $1 million to protect $4.14 Billion, isn’t that a no brainer?
The need for tornado shelters is a proactive issue. If one waits to support the construction of a shelter until they are affected by an event,…..well, it’s too late just as it was too late for those 15 students in Enterprise and Moore. For some, the cost of a shelter is not worth it as long as it is affecting someone else. Forget what the FAA says, look at it this way; what is YOUR life worth? What is YOUR spouse’s or YOUR child’s life worth? Isn’t that a no brainer?