Do you have a storm cellar ? Show us yours.........

We are looking to get a tornado cellar installed (not a safe room type) and I'd like to see what others have and like best.

We are in Okla. and tis the season.......................................

I'm just now starting to get a little antsie........ this is my favorite time of year, but I really dread the spring storms. It's a mixed bag, isn't it.

Please post some pictures of your storm cellar if you can. I'd love to see them.

Am especially interested if you were able to build it yourself. (We built our whole house....
maybe we could build a tornado shelter) ??????

PeggieK I wish we would have built a storm shelter years ago when we built but somehow it never crossed our mine. I wish we would have put it under our concrete front porch when they dug out our basement. We do have a concrete basement which is nice but worry about all thats above us that could come down... March 30, 2006 an F3 zipped across the northern part of our county with great damage, some injuries, but thankfully no fatalities. We live a few miles south of that area that was hit last year. I watch the weather closely when watches and warnings are posted. Wish many times we had a nice storm shelter although we are thankful to have our basement to retreat to when warnings are issued.

Cuckoo

This message was edited Apr 13, 2007 8:20 PM

I remember when that tornado occurred. It's a wonder there weren't more people injured or killed.

Seems that a lot of houses in Kansas & Mo. are built with basements.
Not so much here in Okla. though. I never really thought about a basement being a bad place to be during a tornado.

Our house is just sitting on a concrete slab. I've seen many instances here in Okla. where tornadoes have just wiped the slabs clean, leaving little behind but a
flat piece of concrete. You would think the builders in Okla. would take a hint.
(But we built our own, so that's like the pot calling the kettle black, isn't it.) Haha. We knew better, we just couldn't afford to do it all at once.

And I'm not totally sold on safe-rooms. I'd much rather be below ground level if an F-2, 3, 4, or 5 tornado is on the horizon. I'm sure they offer a high degree of safety, but not enough, considering they are about as expensive as an inground tornado shelter. My thinking is that if a tornado could blow my house off the slab (and it's anchored down good) , it could also blow me and my little safe-room off to who-knows-where. And that might be a right bumpy ride. lol
The safe-room sales people always tell me that the safe-rooms are anchored to your house slab. But then, so is my house, and I don't trust it to stay put.

Sooooooo, I'm still looking at storm cellars, and crossing my fingers.

Here's to hoping we have a mild springtime. But I don't really think we will.
The weather has been so crazy...... it's like waiting for the other shoe to fall.

Snow in April ? Pretty crazy weather. Don't know if I need to build an Igloo, Storm Shelter or an Ark. these days.

PeggieK the basement is great to go to if you have one but I worry about everything above me coming down!!! We need more than concrete walls we need a solid safe storm roof. Thats what we don't have. At least we have the basement for some shelter but sure wish we had an enclosed safer storm shelter. We were crazy to build and not think of this at the time. Many times I wish we would build something safer down in the basement.
I drove up to view the destruction of this(3/30/06) tornado after it happened to help out and It's mind boggling what sort of energy and force the wind has. I learned things watching the T.V. program on the Moore, Ok. tornados that occurred a few years back. Simply unbelievable the power these kind of storms pack. I can't imagine that kind of a storm hitting here. My mind just won't go there I guess.

I remember in May 2001 when my older sis got married there was a tornado in Des Moines, IA. When we left the park, it was daylight but cloudy. Hit I-35 just a few minutes away and it was pitch black. We drove from there to Holt, MO in 6 hailstorms and a tornado. We wished that we were in a shelter instead of a truck but we got off lucky. No damage to truck or us. But it scared us pretty bad so we grabbed a hotel room and called it a night.

Good thing you did. From what I hear, the worst place to be in a tornado is in a vehicle.

Another thing I read about tornado safety while in vehicles is to never go up under the overpass areas under bridges for shelter. Even though they are concrete and look to be reasonably good shelter, they are elevated above the ground level and more exposed to the force of the whirl and suction of the funnel. This article was about people who had parked under the overpass and left their car to get up under the concrete portion of the overpass up under the
overpassing highway. A mother and her children were sucked out and killed.
And they thought they were safer than in their car. And because so many cars had driven up under the overpass and stopped, all the oncomming cars on the highway behind them were blocked from going anywhere, so were left in a traffic jam and exposed with no where to move to. Cars drove up next to each other so tight they couldn't even open their doors. I can't even imagine how horrible that must have felt. I would panic for sure.

It said it would still not be too good, but if in a car, it's better to leave it and
lay flat in a ditch or low spot if a tornado is eminent. In our area, during a tornado the ditches and low areas are usually flooded with the rain during the storm...... so I don't know so much about doing that either.

I just hope I'm never faced with that. Makes me shudder to even think of it.

When I see dark clouds in Okla. I start listening to the weather reports to see what's going on. If I'm on a highway or expressway, I get off and go where there is reasonable shelter, a convenience store, restaurant, or any more secure bldg. and let the storm pass. Usually, it's a cell that only takes 30 minutes or so to pass. Better safe than sorry.

Some folks that aren't familiar with Okla. who might be passing thru this summer on vacation might need to know what to do if in a car during a tornado.

I can remember several fatalities during Okla. tornados that were people from other states, driving thru on our highways and expressways during the spring and summer months. I assume they were not aware of the extreme danger they were in. Maybe they didn't have as many tornados where they were from and just thought it was a garden variety thunderstorm.

I hope some may see this thread and be careful as they pass thru our state this summer. Almost 'ANY' rainstorm In Okla. that has hail and wind is a potential for the formation of a tornado. Especially in spring and summer. Don't drive thru it. It's not worth the chance.

In the meantime, I'm still looking for a 'fraidy-hole' for my backyard.
I've been in 2 tornados, and it wasn't much fun. It made quite an impression on me...................can ya tell ? LOL

We have well pit in the middle of our yard, only about 4x4 but all could get in if need be. It has a concrete roof about 6" thick. Luckily we've never had to use it.
Thunderstorm coming as I type so getting off and shutting down
Bernie

I lived in Kansas for a while so I have some familiarity with tornadoes. I was in Kansas when the town of Udall was demolished and half the population died from an F5.

I have thought about building a hidey-hole here, but for other reasons. My root cellar is partially buried and I'm considering the possibility of digging out behind it, adding at least 8 x 10 feet.

I do believe that Va. gets tornadoes sometimes too. Having a safe place to get underground wouldn't be a bad idea.

Oh, that's awful about Udall. What year did that happen ?

1953 I think. We left there in '54.

I hear there was a bad outbreak yesterday & today. We only get sketchy news about them here.
I feel sorry for all the folks that are suddenly with out a home, let alone the deaths!
Bernie

Just was a bit on the news about Texas. Why do they always hit a mobile home park ?

We don't have much to worry about with tornados as the mountains tend to shear them off. We do have those lovely flash floods to contend with. It seems everywhere has their own brand of natural disaster to deal with. You have to pick your poison.

Seems that we have not had hardly any severe tornado type weather this summer. Which is good. But what we have had, has been a continual rain that would seem to not leave our area. Seems like the rain front would just stall over us. It rained every single day for 37 days in a row. Many people just a few miles north of us are in shelters because they've been flooded out of their homes. Our ground is so saturated, the water has no place to go. Our property flooded, but not in the house, thankfully. Now our property is just swampy.

Today was the first day of sunshine for a long long time. I think the rain is over for now. There's a lot of clean-up that is going to have to be done from the flooding. Some of the rivers have been so far above flood stage, and are finally cresting...... just to the north of us today.

Yes, I guess we can pick our posion, if we can just figure out what it is............lol. In our area, it keeps changing.

I thought I needed a storm shelter............... but maybe I need a boat.
Or BOTH. lol :) It would be my luck, a tornado might blow my boat away, and the floods fill up my fraidy hole. Go figure !