Clever design for a new school building - the reinforcements cost less than 15% more to build but the new school is a Tsunami shelter for up to 2,000 people. From Seattle station KING-TV
The lower walls are designed to collapse to lower the water resistance. From The Seattle Times:
‘It will happen here’: Washington Coast school builds nation’s first tsunami refuge
The first students to race up the stairs at Ocosta Elementary School’s new gym and tsunami refuge were so excited, it took teachers a while to corral them into orderly lines on the rooftop.
“It’s really cool to finally see kids up here,” Paula Akerlund said, as the third-graders jostled and joked and tried to peer over the tall parapet on a sunny spring afternoon.
Akerlund is superintendent of the Ocosta School District, headquartered near Westport a scant half-mile from the Pacific Ocean. On Saturday, she will preside over a dedication ceremony for what — on the outside — looks pretty much like any modern school complex.
What’s unique about this gym is mostly hidden from view: tons of concrete and steel that make it the first structure in the nation designed to withstand a tsunami and provide a safe haven from the rushing waters.
Very cool to hear about - it is not a matter of IF,it is a matter of WHEN and the better prepared we are, the more of us will survive and thrive.
Leave a comment