Be Prepared During Storm Season with a Storm Shelter

By Jon Jordan, NEWS 9

HARRAH, Oklahoma -- After tornadoes like the ones we experienced earlier this week interest in tornado shelters are surging, but it turns out just how safe a shelter is can vary.

Harrah was one of the areas hit hard by the recent outbreak of tornadoes. Few people in the area have shelters.

Mike and Tammi West are fortunate to have survived the tornado that ripped through their neighborhood. They escaped only seconds before it hit.

"Everyone that stayed around the neighborhood said that after we left it was probably less than a minute when it started hitting homes," Mike West said.

Because they didn't have a storm shelter they raced to a family member's house that did, something they say will soon change.

"When you only escape by minutes it makes you think," said Tammi West. "You only want to take 30 seconds to get in a shelter then drive three miles."

Whether it's an inside storm shelter or outside, there are not regulations in place describing how they should be built, just suggestions. A business can choose to follow those suggestions, or not.

"Unfortunately, there is no strict criteria to make a company hold their product to accountability," Flat Safe Sales Manager Lisa Ingram said.

Which is why Flat Safe, a company that has built more than 4,000 shelters, goes out of their way to field test their product making sure it can sustain heavy debris being tossed around EF-5 wind speeds, something not every company is willing to do.

"You definitely want to do your research," said Ingram. "You want to check out the company and just because the claim is being made, you want to say, 'Prove it to me.'"

The average price of a shelter is about $3,000.