Why We Always Bet upon a Tornado Shelter?

Many Oklahomans are hesitant to build ef5 tornado shelters, considering the danger that comes with living in Tornado Alley. And for twisters, state and local building codes don't factor.

One explanation, researchers claim, is the public belief that nothing can endure an EF5 tornado." Indeed any structure that outlasts the violent winds and the destructive shrapnel cloud that follows an EF5 is difficult to imagine.

Knowing the Scale

There are two components to the issue of survivability: individuals and the systems they occupy when extreme weather hits.

But it's crucial to know what an EF5 tornado is exactly and how the most extreme twisters are identified before we tackle that issue. It is impossible to directly calculate the wind speed of a tornado since storms appear to kill instruments. So meteorologists have to predict wind speeds for tornadoes. From 1971 to 2007, the initial "Fujita Scale" that rated these estimates was used but the estimates were not really based on true, calculated tornado wind velocities.

Structures & Codes for Building

Timothy Marshall, a meteorologist and a structural engineer at Haag Engineering in Dallas, says the less probability to survive ef5 myth is a drawback to policies relating to home and commercial building construction.

The reasoning goes: why do anything if nothing will survive? "In a July interview, Marshall said to StateImpact.

Just because an EF5 designation is given to a tornado does not mean that the full brunt of it is actually encountered by any structure in its path. Recent research currently shows that most systems don't.

People &shelters for storms

The EF5 issue is not about building codes alone. It applies to tornado shelters as well. Many people assume that the EF5's disruptive force makes an underground shelter the only safe place to go.

That's not true. Properly constructed, above-ground safe rooms are just as secure as underground shelters, typically a hardened indoor closet strengthened with steel andconcrete, says Ernst Kiesling of Texas Tech, who is also the National Storm Shelter Association's executive director. In fact, secure rooms above ground can be better because when extreme storms come in, they are more likely to be used, he says.

People get into shelters in the last minute, and a lot of wind, hail, rain, debris is usually already blowing around by that time he says.People look outside and hesitate and decide that they're going to try and ride it out.

In properly constructed above-ground safe rooms, there have been no records of any deaths, Keisling says.

Yet there remains the belief that the only way to escape an EF5 is to seek refuge in an underground shelter. "It's a very very harmful falsehood, and I wish we could find a way to overcome it," says Kiesling. "But, unfortunately, you can't kill the idea once an idea is out there."

Contact Ef5 Tornado Shelters in Edmond to get your shelter installed now.