Wait till 58, lots of elemental shaman gear in outlands.
Survive? I definitely die less as Ele versus Enh, simply becoz I'm far away from the bosses, the tank has more reaction time to get back aggro.
DPS wise, I THINK I do slightly less in most situations, except when a Pally is tanking and we are doing AOE instead of CC. Then Chain Lightnings.... are.. WoW.
In Solo, I prefer Enh, ... once u get water shield, ... combined with Shamanistic Rage, there were virtually no downtime at all.
But having said all that, I definitely prefer playing Ele Shaman. Though I love bashing people in their face.