1.4 MILLION per school? for shelters? Are they on the crack-pipe?

[wercal]

46. I wouldn't have a problem putting my kids in a tank either

Its just a precast concrete vault, buried in the ground - it should be very effective.

I think your objection to the OP is the idea of putting multiple small pods buried outside next to a school...and there are some problems with that, purely from the perspective that its hard to control small children and get them grouped up and running to the correct pod...and in general it would be better to have the shelter interior to the building, so nobody has to dash outside.

But every one of the photos in the OP looks like a viable shelter for home use.

I actually think the $1.2 million is on the high side...and the what we have added these things to schools is not purely as a shelter, but dual use, like adding a hardened classroom on to the end of a building. So, its just an additional expense when adding on to the school - not a stand alone expense with no benefit, unless a storm comes.

But even at $1.2 million, this is not an unsurmountable cost. These things can be bonded for 20 years, so the debt service would be something like $70k a year...not much more than the cost of one senior teaching position (not that they would actually have to lose a position, since the operating costs for schools are seperate from the capital costs, which are usually only paid by special mill levies, after a referendum election).

So, looking at the ballot meaure...Moore, Ok has 23 schools...and 40k people which is about 19k households. The total cost would be $27.6 million, with an annual debt service $1.61 million....or (assuming all houses in Moore had the same value) around $7 per month additional property taxes. I think most people would vote 'yes' on that ballot measure.