Isn’t it amazing when something that is very popular whether it be a type of sunglasses, boots, shoes, lawn chair, car or boat, there is always someone waiting in the wings to offer a cheap knock off or a “better mouse trap” that truly isn’t better albeit cheaper but definitely not equal or better quality. And guess what? It has hit the tornado shelter industry.
I’m always amazed at people’s creativity when it comes to designing tornado shelter/safe rooms. Sometimes they are really good ideas however, a lot of instances, the ideas are just ludicrous. There are a couple of instances where people that believe that designing and constructing a tornado shelter/safe room for our schools are saying that shelter just cost too much and there are some alternatives in the “mean time”. My experience in designing K-12 schools most of my career, is “mean time” or “temporary” actually means they are permanently temporary due to many factors beyond the scope of this blog.
Recently, I saw an internet news article where a school district was being provided with helmets for the students to help protect them in a tornadic event. These helmets were not what you would see an Indy or NASCAR driver wearing, more like what you would see during a visit to your local park.
Today, a friend and colleague of mine sent me an article about two individuals that have developed a blanket…yes…blanket to be utilized by school children to help protect them in a tornadic event at a cost of $1,000 each. They have been ballistic tested and passed those tests…
OK, hit “Pause” for a second..
There have been a lot of ballistic tested materials out there whether it be steel, glass, composite materials, meshes, etc. and have passed those tests. Bullets are a high velocity but low mass object so they dissipate energy very quick. That’s how bullet proof vests work and that’s great! However, put that same vest against a 15 pound 2×4 at 100 mph and the outcome will be different. The vest may keep the 2×4 from penetrating it but it doesn’t keep the force from being applied to it. That’s why you don’t see bullet proof vest advertised as a form of “personal tornado shelters”.
OK…hit “Play”
Someone missed that the kids that perished in Plaza Towers Elementary School, Moore, Oklahoma, per the medical examiner, were killed by “mechanical asphyxiation”…they were crushed by the building materials collapsing on them and could not breathe. No helmet, no blanket, no bullet proof vest would have stopped this from happening.
Cost savings? Let’s see, 600 occupants at $1,000 per blanket = $600,000 plus you need the space to store them! You’re ¾ the way to a full blown shelter that would give a school additional space!
The helmets and/or protective blanket concepts in schools, in my opinion do nothing but give parents a false sense of security however “temporary” they are. Whatever the motivation and intentions, these efforts are misdirected and in the end could easily cost someone their life.
Be careful out there!