Safe Rooms can protect you when an EF-5 tornado is heading towards you, where would you want to be? In an above ground safe room, or below ground shelter? That is a personal preference and it depends on who you ask.
The weather people always used to say, when you’re facing an EF-5, “the only way to survive the thing is to be below ground” and that is not true with today’s technology.
People just grew up with people going underground, but new technology has been developed.
Videos of safe rooms and shelters getting tested at Texas Tech’s National Wind Institute shows that change.
But what about the issue of being stuck inside after the storm? The underground shelter door slides open. But studies show that above ground safe room doors are safer, because they open inward or outward and you could crawl out over debris. It’s virtually impossible to get trapped inside a Safe Room.
Above ground safe rooms are easier to get into for seniors and those with physical disabilities, or people who have trouble walking down stairs.
John Bourdeau is with FEMA, and was part of a team that analyzed how above ground and below ground shelters held up during May 20th. “We found that nearly everything performed well,” he said. In fact, he has never seen either shelter fail anywhere around the country that met FEMA’s P-320 specification guidelines.
At Safe Rooms US our design meets and exceeds FEMA guidelines. We have also passed the Texas Tech Impact Test. When we install your Safe Room we use anchor bolts every 12″. Our Safe Room also has a steel floor and when we attach it to the slab it makes it a more secure hold. Each of our anchor bolts have 10,000 pounds of sheer strength.