An American company has designed a Survival Capsule that looks like a giant snooker ball to help people escape tsunamis.
The survival capsule is a personal safety system in the form of a giant ball that has been designed to provide shelter from tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes or storm surges.
Mail Online reports that a woman in Washington state’s Long Beach Peninsula has now become the first person to invest in the $13,500 contraption, although she has admitted she’s dreading testing it out.
Ms Jeanne Johnson, a Microsoft employee from New Orleans, speaking to The Seattle Times, said, “It’s going to be terrible. But it’s better than the alternative”.
“I bought that capsule to give me peace of mind, so I can sleep at night and not worry,” Ms Johnson added.
But the Survival Capsules aren’t cheap – the two person version retails at $13,500, while the four person version costs $17,500.
The capsule, which features two small porthole windows so the occupants can see what is going on around them, was created to give individual groups and families more control of their survival in emergency situation than traditional “safe houses”.
Julian Sharpe, founder of The Survival Capsule, said, “It gives [people] an option of having a security system on their own property which is easily accessible day or night and really gives the family a safe security they wouldn’t otherwise have”.
The capsule is designed as a “variable disaster solution,” according to the designers.
It floats, so it will never be inundated by water levels rising too high, as they do in tsunami situations.
A self-righting system, using water bladders in the bottom, prevents it from rolling upside down.
It can also be tethered to prevent it being washed away with the occupants inside.
The capsule, which is made from a hardened aluminium shell and frame, is also insulated to keep the occupants warm.
It is intended to keep those inside safe during the initial post-disaster period before rescue crews and relief workers have arrived on the scene.
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