How prepared are you in the event of a Tsunami? Well, one woman from New Orleans is the real definition of Tsunami preparedness.
Jeanne Johnson figured out how to survive a hurricane when she lived in New Orleans. When the family moved to Kansas City, she taught her kids to take cover from tornadoes. When Johnson bought a house near the ocean in Washington state, she started worrying about tsunamis. They are huge waves caused by earthquakes in the ocean.
Now, Johnson is betting her life on a new, high-tech solution: a tsunami survival capsule. An escape pod designed to survive tsunamis.
The spherical pod is made of airplane-grade aluminum, with two seats, air-tight vents, room for supplies, and a locking marine door. It’s designed to float away in a tsunami, bobbing to the surface as it keeps the occupants safe inside.
Johnson is the first U.S. buyer of this technology. She just recently moved from the Seattle area to what she calls her “dream home” at the beach. It’s about midway up the sandy, flat Long Beach Peninsula in southwest Washington state, and, she recognized, in a tsunami zone.
Company president Julian Sharpe said he got the idea for the product lying awake one night while weekending in Cannon Beach, Oregon.
While the inspiration for the product was tsunami survival, Sharpe said his company’s capsules are now drawing additional interest from people worried about hurricanes or typhoons.
“Rather than evacuate from hurricanes and be 200 miles away while the hurricane decides it wants to go in a different direction, leaving their home vulnerable – or business vulnerable – to looting, they want to stay at home and have a tsunami capsule as a last line of defense.”
The two-person survival capsule starts at $13,500. A four-person model lists for $17,500.
Sharpe said he aspires to bring the price down through economies of scale when orders increase.
“We hope that people will see the value of this product,” he said. “It’s not a gizmo or a toy. It’s a life insurance policy. It’s really designed to give people who live in coastal communities peace of mind.”
Residents who swung by Long Beach City Hall earlier to look at plans for a different evacuation option had mixed reactions to the tsunami capsule idea. Jane Bena shivered at the prospect of sheltering inside while being battered by tsunami debris.
“I would hate to be bounced around in that,” she said. “I’m too old. I’m 80 years old. I don’t know that I would care to survive a tsunami.”
Watch the video below for more details:
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