Tornado shelter

[ctg492]

In Michigan we have basements to take cover in during a tornado warning. (unless you are a man who seems to always go stand on porch to see). The home in Tennessee we now have and everyone we looked at, has no basement. I sadly joke that the tornado watches happen everyday right now. The garage is 5 steps down so that is the lowest spot. This seems like no protection to me! So where if any other place in the home is best?

[ctg492]

http://www.stormsheltersoftennessee.com/tornado_shelters.html

in my search I found this site. I saw the new home down the street has one. Your thoughts?

[Float On]

If you are in a house with no basement, or an apartment the safest place is an interior room like the hall bathroom or under the stairs. We had one scary night where we drug a mattress and we all got in the tub and wedged the mattress over us. I remember that in Joplin they interviewed one family that didn't have a basement and they did the same thing but also added bike or football helmets and felt that those had really saved them.
In the north part of our state almost everyone has a basement or storm cellar (we had both on the farm). Not as many in our area because of the expense of blasting through rock.

[iris lilies]

Being an upper-midwesterner, I have to have a basement. Even if it floods (ours does) and smells moldy (ours does) and harbors radon (probably ours does) and etc, gotta have basement. Sometimes we go there for tornado warnings, sometimes not. But mainly we store junk in it, it holds the washer dryer and DH's carpentry shop.

[peggy]

Being an upper-midwesterner, I have to have a basement. Even if it floods (ours does) and smells moldy (ours does) and harbors radon (probably ours does) and etc, gotta have basement. Sometimes we go there for tornado warnings, sometimes not. But mainly we store junk in it, it holds the washer dryer and DH's carpentry shop.

I agree. Must have a basement. Even though ours is a walk out, the bathroom in the way-back is completely underground. So is the exercise room but it's got some heavy equipment that would kill you if it went flying around, so bathroom it is.
I have also heard that the bathroom in the tub is probably the best place if you don't have a basement. I'm not sure about storm shelters that are out in the yard. Will everyone have the presence of mind to go outside (counter intuitive I think) to go to the shelter?

[The Storyteller]

I wouldn't live in Oklahoma without a storm shelter of some sort, whether it be a bunker, a basement, or a safe room. If I purchased a home without one, I would install one immediately.

We own two homes, and both have underground bunker-type shelters. We don't often go into one, but it is nice having them all the same.

[ctg492]

Storyteller did you see the link I posted, what do you think of these? FEMA approved. Like I said I am from the land of basements. I lived through a tornado in the basement. No basements were this new home is. So after a few times already feeling stupid sitting in lower garage, I really want a shelter.

[Blackdog Lin]

In our area of Kansas folks don't have basements. The paranoid (or truly smart people) among us put in pre-built cement shelters in the back yard.

I've never been through a tornado, so that probably colors my thinking on the matter, but I've always felt safe enough with having our interior bathroom. It is our designated tornado shelter: no outside walls, a fiberglass tub-and-surround, large enough to hold 2 adults and the dog, and steps away from a bedroom from which the plan would be to snatch the mattress and/or bedcoverings for head protection.

Everyone is different on the cost/benefit ratio. For me, having the interior bathroom, I can't see spending the money on a bunker-shelter.

[simplelife4me]

Wish there was a website that showed tornado winds research about what the best structure shape and materials are...dome versus traditional shaped housing, etc.

[lessisbest]

Wish there was a website that showed tornado winds research about what the best structure shape and materials are...dome versus traditional shaped housing, etc.

You might be able to find the information you are looking for through Texas Tech University...
http://www.depts.ttu.edu/nwi/research/shelters.php

[simplelife4me]

Thanks Lessisbest.