Tornado season is everlasting. There’s just no beginning or ending. While storm season traditionally runs from spring to late fall, sporadic winter storms have debunked all conventional wisdom when it comes to killer tornadoes. Can we ever really get a break? And what about tracking the path or frequency of tornadoes? In the past, most of the nation’s killer storms were limited to the Midwest in the notorious “Tornado Alley.” But recent tornado outbreaks prove that no region is ever safe from sudden tornado outbreaks.
With meteorologists scrambling to come up with answers to this curious change in climate, project managers are facing another existential crisis. “How do I provide protection for my employees?” Factories and jobsites remain particularly vulnerable to tornado outbreaks. A lack of permanent shelter and the presence of heavy duty equipment and industrial materials is the perfect concoction for a disaster. Without immediate access to protection in hazardous and exposed environments, your employees lives remain at risk every time severe weather comes to town. A quick Google for “tornado shelter” yields dozens of results. But where do you click? There are hundreds of sizes to choose from. But before you get too bogged down in the fine details, it’s important to take a step back and ask, “What kind of shelter do you need for a tornado?”
Commercial Shelters Ideal For Construction Sites and Industrial Sites
Factories and construction zones are some of the worst places you can be when the tornado sirens start to blare. There’s nowhere to run, and if a worker is caught off-guard in a swirling funnel of debris, their chances for survival remain slim to none. Scaffolding, ladders and tools become torpedoes bent for construction when launched by powerful winds. And what kind of message does this send to your workforce? If you can’t provide something as simple as a tornado shelter, they might assume that you simply don’t care enough about your employees. Just think about what this does to company morale! A hardhat and bright orange vest just aren’t enough to keep them out of harm’s way. But let’s just examine the logistics of a tornado shelter on the jobsite or in a commercial warehouse.
Factories and ongoing construction work are often cluttered or at the very least bustling with workers and valuable parts moving about. Wouldn’t a tornado shelter stymie daily operations and slow down production? Not necessarily. Depending on the size of your facilities, a well-placed or centralized tornado shelter could reduce the amount of time it takes for employees to find protection. Our commercial tornado shelters can also easily placed in almost any part of your facility without throwing a kink into your well oiled machine. We also understand that jobsites are constantly changing and remain in a state of flux. And since not every job requires a permanent storage solution, a commercial tornado shelter rental is a perfect temporary solution to a recurring problem.
Consider Spreading Out Multiple Shelters for Larger Facilities and College Campuses
Of course, some facilities are simply too large for just one tornado shelter, regardless of where it’s placed. For larger workforces, the absence of more than one tornado shelter can produce utter chaos as hundreds of employees scramble to a centralized commercial tornado shelter. It’s almost like yelling, “Fire!” in a crowded movie theater. With some many people frantically scurrying for safety, there’s a real chance that slower or small employees could be trampled in the mad dash to find cover. Facilities with larger footprints should therefore consider multiple smaller to medium sized tornado shelters that can be strategically placed throughout factories and warehouses in proximity to corridors and emergency exits for accessibility. Having multiple smaller units at various locations is safer that everyone converging on a single point. Multiple tornado shelters also make sense for college campuses, which are traditionally composed of several standalone buildings and dorms. This will undoubtedly prevent large study bodies from being caught out in the storm unprotected.
What kind of shelter do you need for a tornado?
Mother Nature is truly unpredictable. You should leave nothing to chance when dealing with killer tornadoes. In the past few years, tornadoes have touched down in nearly every corner of the continental US. The truth is, nowhere is immune from the impunity of Mother Nature. Last December’s tornado outbreak in Kentucky and Illinois demonstrates just how vulnerable factories and warehouses remain to tornadoes. Had a shelter been in place at the Amazon warehouse, those employees might be alive today to champion the merits of proper tornado protection. Now is the time to invest in secure protection, so your company doesn’t become a front-page story for all the wrong reasons.
