Storm shelters

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Running Arrow Bill":tli2tse4 said:
We don't have shelter either. EXtremely expensive for slight probability of one getting to your specific place. Also, any shelters need to be water and varmit tight...and, what if something huge lands on top of your entrance door and you have no phone down there that will work and there you are! Buried alive! ... Until someone just happens to discover you are missing... duh...

Then it's not built right -- a storm shelter door should NEVER be on top of the shelter and should NEVER open outward, they should always open INWARD from the SIDE of the shelter. If doors open inward, you'll never have a problem that a chainsaw won't fix -- and your chainsaw should be in the shelter with you, along with your generator, extra fuel, batteries, water, and emergency food supplies. We're even considering having a solar cell to supply electricity until power comes back online.

As for phones -- to heck with cell phones in a situation like that, the towers would be down/out of service anyway. Doesn't anyone remember 2-way/CB radios? In a "state of emergency" radios are much more reliable.

People in hurricane-prone areas can't say that there's only a "slight probability" that they'll need one -- it's a forgone conclusion that they'll need one eventually. Maybe not every week during certain times of the year, but often enough to make it well worth the money.
PLUS, a well-built storm shelter DOES increase the value of a piece of property.

Anyone seen "Panic Room"?
A bullet-proof "panic room" like the one portrayed in that movie costs approximately $10,000 to have built, can be built above ground, inside or outside the main dwelling, and it will withstand practically anything, from high-powered bullets, to flying debris, to a large vehicle being dropped on top of it. We've all seen the demonstrations showing a flying 2x4 piecing a concrete wall -- that flying 2x4 bounces off of the walls of a "panic room".

Ann B
 
Ask D.R. cattle how much a storm shelter would have done for his cattle in the hurricane. Sound great lets build an underground storm shelter for a hurricane then we can all drown together.
 
txshowmom":2mjewbr7 said:
Ask D.R. cattle how much a storm shelter would have done for his cattle in the hurricane. Sound great lets build an underground storm shelter for a hurricane then we can all drown together.

Who's talking about storm shelters for cattle? We're talking about sheltering people.
I keep seeing these responses about sheltering cattle and I've yet to find the post asking about shelters for cattle.

MY concern about the cattle was if you evacuated and then the authorities don't let you back in in a timely fashion, the health and safety of the animals would suffer.
We'll have 5 acres in Florida and we raise Miniature Jerseys in a semi-confinement situation If we were to evacuate and not be allowed back in, the animals would literally starve to death after the storm. So a PEOPLE storm shelter would benefit the animals by allowing their caretakers to have access to them immediately after the storm.

Ann B
 
My wife :heart: and I are building a new home now and we looked at the underground storm shelters. We didn't get one because of a lot of the reasons listed by other posters but also because we didn't like the thought of going out into the storm to get to shelter. We put a small "storm room" in the house, just off the master bedroom, an 8' X 6' room with a solid metal door, two dead bolts, etc.

It's made out of masonary blocks filled with concrete & rebar and capped with concrete. The only place it's connected to the house is to the slab with more rebar, the house is built around it but not tied to it. We plan on keeping a couple of chairs, a lantern, flash light, emer. supplies on shelves, etc. It has the A.C. tied into it but also has a vent piped to the outside in case we lose power, also has a phone line in it.

This is just for short term storms, tornados, high winds, etc. We've lived on the Gulf Coast :cry: and been though a few hurricanes. Those type of shelters would have to be much larger, the storms lasts for hours if not days.

;-)
 
Mahoney Pursley Ranch":1p8l7u9i said:
Ok so where in Texas do you consider tornado alley? And just in case it snows isn't the same as saving lives.

Having lived in Texas most of my life, having missed all tornados...knock on wood thus far.... My interpretation of Tornado Alley is:

Roughly... A line along I-35 (plus or minus about 50-75 miles either side) from about San Antonio area, thru DFW area, OKC, and on up to the Dakotas. Of course, they can spring up just about anywhere. It seems that a lot of "bad" weather (rain, hail, wind) seems to hit the DFW area a lot--don't know if it is all that concrete and asphalt or what...a micro-climate??

Waco had a devastating tornado several decades ago. FTW had a mini-tornado a few years ago that hit downtown FTW. In the 1940's, West of downtown FTW had a bad flood that rose up to 2 stories high along Camp Bowie blvd...was before the Corp of Engineers re-built the levies along the Trinity River.
 
Pretty much everyone here just goes to the basement to wait it out. Good plan,if the house doesn't collapse into the basement or you don't get sucked out the basement window. A friend of mine bought a big plastic water tank with a huge manhole at a sale for almost nothing. he dug a hole, poured a slab in the bottom,put a vent in the top and covered it up. The neighbors laughed about it for years until his family came out of it OK,while the house was completly gone,including the furnace and water heater from the basement.
 
txshowmom":3h9dyn4k said:
Ask D.R. cattle how much a storm shelter would have done for his cattle in the hurricane. Sound great lets build an underground storm shelter for a hurricane then we can all drown together.
I was talking about tornados in Texas not hurricanes in Florida. And the last thing on my mind when my familys life is in danger would be my cattle.
 
I'm a Realtor in the central Texas (Waco, Temple) area, and I've seen very few homes in the last 8 years with storm shelters. Actually the ones I have seen were older homes, built in the 40's - 50's, not recently built.
 
I survived 2 tornados in Illinois as a child. Granted it is a chance you take like being struck by lightening. After spending the last 30 years in Arizona where we have no bad weather to speak of and now moving to Texas I see no reason not to have the extra insurance and peace of mind of having a tornado shelter in my home. It will be built on the interior so you don't need to go outside to access it. I am not sold on the safe room thing as far as a twister goes because no matter how secure they are stll above ground. And by the way the doors to these shelters are watertight and should open outward. I have not seen one model yet that has an inward opening door.
 
i have been browsing thru house plan magazines, i saw one that had a storm room, i am going to guess it is some reinforced concrete room that was positioned in the garage area in the plan that i saw. right now if a tornada comes up im going to my neighbors, i plan on looking into the storm room a little better, if i don't ever have to use it.....thats ok by me (knowing us i am sure it will be used for something..lol :D )
but in north central Texas ya never know.

samm
 
samm":3qfz9l7f said:
i have been browsing thru house plan magazines, i saw one that had a storm room, i am going to guess it is some reinforced concrete room that was positioned in the garage area in the plan that i saw. right now if a tornada comes up im going to my neighbors, i plan on looking into the storm room a little better, if i don't ever have to use it.....thats ok by me (knowing us i am sure it will be used for something..lol :D )
but in north central Texas ya never know.

samm

I saw something on that type of a setup last week. They claimed they could shoot a 2x4 at 200 mph and it wouldn't damage the walls. The doors were reinforced steel, they never specified how it was reinforced.

dun
 
I can't bring myself to believe that a safe room ( maybe from a home invasion standpoint it is) or a storm room is a good place to be in a tornado. In my opinion if it's built above ground in a tornado it's goin down the street. I'm going to opt for the underground shelter probably the steel variety as I do not believe the concrete ones will not seep water.
 

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