DisastersDeadly storms spark rush for storm shelters

Community shelter designed to resist 300 MPH winds // Source: kingswaygreen.com

The recent spate of severe storms that have devastated the south and mid-west, has sparked a sharp increase in the demand storm shelters.

This year has already proven to be one of the deadliest years for tornadoes in history. So far hundreds of thousands of homes have been destroyed, hundreds of people killed, and more are still missing, as tornado season continues to pummel the country. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in late April, one particularly devastating storm spawned a record 226 tornadoes in one day, bringing that week’s total to 312.

With storms raging across the country,demand has skyrocketed and companies that sell secure shelters designed to withstand powerful storms are scrambling to keep pace.

Alisa Smith, the director of sales for the Arkansas branch of Family Safe Shelter, said that her company is installing more than forty shelters a day around the United States.

Smith said, “We are having such a bad season that people say, ‘I thought about it for two years and put it off, but now I really need to get one.’”

She added, “Everybody would like to have one, and they want them yesterday.”

Ernst Kiesling, a civil engineering professor at Texas Tech University and the executive director of the National Storm Shelter Association (NSSA), said that less than 3 percent of homes in the United States have storm shelters.

Storm shelters can cost anywhere from $3,000 to tens of thousands of dollars depending on the quality of construction. At the low end are concrete bunkers, while more expensive shelters are built from steel.

NSSA says that a well-made storm shelter contains at least three deadbolts on doors and walls that can withstand debris being hurled at more than 100 miles per hour. If above ground, the shelter should be anchored to concrete pads, and those underground should be designed not to collapse when air pressure changes.

But Kiesling warns, that there is little oversight of the storm shelter industry and some companies fail to meet the safety requirement that NSSA has outlined. He added that some shelters are essentially septic tanks made to accommodate people, while others use flimsy building materials that can be torn off in high winds.

“Almost anyone can start up a shelter business and build shelters,” he said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been encouraging states to use federal disaster aid money to encourage homeowners to purchase storm shelters by offering subsidies. FEMA will pay up to 75 percent of the costs of building approved shelters.

For instance, starting in 2001, Mississippi began incentivizing storm shelters, and following Hurricane Katrina, the state received an additional $6.6 million to help pay for more shelters.

Many of the roughly 100 companies sell storm shelters say that demand is currently at an all-time high.

Jeff Olsen, the owner of Missouri Storm Shelters, said, “Today all three phone lines are lit up at the same time, and the e-mails are flying in.”

Olsen’s company is located near Joplin, Missouri where last weekend a tornado ripped through the townkilling at least 122 people.

Missouri Storm Shelters has been in business for nine years and Olsen says he has never been so busy.

“The way things are going, we are going to have a record all-time month,” he said.

In the recent rush on storm shelters, Olsen said that his top seller was a steel tornado safe room that can be bolted to the floor of a garage. It costs roughly $4,000 and is designed to withstand high winds and debris.