# Time to install a Storm Shelter in the Backyard **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 3, 2012, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-install-a-storm-shelter-in-the-backyard/614665 "2012-03-03T19:48:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-install-a-storm-shelter-in-the-backyard/614665/1 "2012-03-03T19:48:06Z")
I’m getting tired of huddling in the hallway while the sirens go off. So far we’ve been out of the tornados path this week. Our area got slammed hard last spring. We even crawled into a closet with the dogs one scary night. They make a pre-fab storm shelter. Dig a hole with a backhoe and drop it in. I’m calling first thing next week. I know we’re in for some bad tornado weather the next three months. Whole towns disappeared this week. What the heck is going on in this world? Home sweet home while those sirens blast away… [http://arkansasstormshelter.com/concrete-shelters](http://arkansasstormshelter.com/concrete-shelters) ---
**Author:** ![Bag\_of\_Mostly\_Water](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bag_of_mostly_water/32/1029_2.png) [@Bag\_of\_Mostly\_Water](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bag_of_Mostly_Water)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-install-a-storm-shelter-in-the-backyard/614665/2 "2012-03-03T20:39:09Z")
I will never forget Henry Margusity’s [video](http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-blogs/meteomadness/post-7/62306) yesterday morning on the Accuweather web site. (Scroll down the page a bit for the Flash video.) He basically said that anyone in the this area (and drew a region on the displayed map) who doesn’t have a tornado sheltering plan may be dead by the end of the day. Unfortunately he was correct. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-install-a-storm-shelter-in-the-backyard/614665/3 "2012-03-03T20:57:15Z")
I have concerns about where I live - we don’t have a basement. There are very few basements in this area because the water table is so damn high a basement would essentially be an underground indoor swimming pool. We do have the furnace room - triple course brick, no windows, interior of the building. At least it’s more solid than our closet or bathroom spaces. Probably good for most smaller tornadoes though, let’s face it, if we ever get slammed by an EF5 were f\*\*\*\*\*. We do have a gameplan and somewhere to duck, which is half the battle with these things. ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-install-a-storm-shelter-in-the-backyard/614665/4 "2012-03-03T21:48:35Z")
[safe sheds](http://www.safesheds.com/) This is the storm shelter my daughter and family have. It is above ground and good for places with a high water table. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-install-a-storm-shelter-in-the-backyard/614665/5 "2012-03-03T22:23:05Z")
How on earth do you folks \*live \*in Tornado Alley!? I would be popping valium like M&Ms. Where I live we only have blizzards and the occasional thunderstorm or hurricane, but year after year of killer _tornados?_ I wouldn’t survive the stress, let alone the wind. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-install-a-storm-shelter-in-the-backyard/614665/6 "2012-03-03T23:23:38Z")
Like any disaster you never think it will happen to you or your relatives. Thankfully tornado season in Arkansas is mostly March-early May. We’ve had a few winter ones too in Nov. The biggest concern now is the strength and width seems to be growing. Usually tornado skip around hitting a house here or there. But the last few years entire blocks of homes in Alabama and Joplin Missouri were flattened. The ones in Indiana this week were just unbelievable in scale. Right now my focus is getting a shelter we can run too. My house offers little protection except for the interior hallway. Pictures they are showing this week shows just how little chance a house has after a direct hit. Storm shelters were common in rural houses 70 years ago. My grandmothers house had one. For some reason, they didn’t include them in modern suburan housing and people are dying. ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-install-a-storm-shelter-in-the-backyard/614665/7 "2012-03-04T00:02:31Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > How on earth do you folks \*live \*in Tornado Alley!? I would be popping valium like M&Ms. Where I live we only have blizzards and the occasional thunderstorm or hurricane, but year after year of killer _tornados?_ I wouldn’t survive the stress, let alone the wind. The chances of getting hit are actually pretty low (well, if you get hit it doesn’t feel like it, but statistically speaking it is true), considering that most tornadoes are relatively small, covering less than a square mile ([Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado#Size_and_shape) says an average of 500 feet and 5 miles; most are also relatively weak, say like a weak hurricane, only much shorter in duration so damage should be less); nobody around here seems concerned with the sirens go off even though there are tornadoes in the general area every year (St. Louis, MO; an EF4 hit the northern parts last spring, and another tornado a few months before that, plus occasional reports of smaller ones which usually do just tree and roof damage, note that this is in the general area, say a thousand square miles). That said, if one did hit my house, I don’t know how much my basement would protect me since only half of it is actually underground (the backyard is level with the floor). ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-install-a-storm-shelter-in-the-backyard/614665/8 "2012-03-04T00:54:44Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Like any disaster you never think it will happen to you or your relatives. See, that’s where we differ–I \*always \*assume it will happen to me and my relatives. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-install-a-storm-shelter-in-the-backyard/614665/9 "2012-03-04T00:58:49Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Whole towns disappeared this week. What the heck is going on in this world? You don’t suppose there might be something to that global climate change nonsense, do you? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-install-a-storm-shelter-in-the-backyard/614665/10 "2012-03-04T01:03:18Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > How on earth do you folks \*live \*in Tornado Alley!? I would be popping valium like M&Ms. Where I live we only have blizzards and the occasional thunderstorm or hurricane, but year after year of killer _tornados?_ I wouldn’t survive the stress, let alone the wind. OMIGOSH! How do people live in California with the earthquakes? Hawaii has volcanoes and sharks. New Orleans? Swamped by a hurricane. Every area has it’s problems, and the locals adapt. You learn the signs of danger and when they show up you get inside and preferably below ground. Big box stores like Meijer’s and Wal-Mart built their public restrooms to double as storm shelters and they’re like this bombshelter/bunker things. More and more mobile home parks have a solid structure for people to duck into in severe weather. In my building, the furnace room is triple-course brick and completely interior, an early sort of panic room. MOST tornadoes are in the EF0-EF1 range. Remember, there was something like 100 tornadoes in the past 48 hours, and it’s only the worst 1 or 2 (maybe 3) being featured on the news. Which makes the death and destruction no less tragic, of course, and even a small tornado is nothing to trifle with, but the locals manage to cope nearly all of the time. ETA: I’ve been through 3 or 4 tornadoes myself (with the most recent a near-miss with the funnel going through about four blocks away - the building sustained some damage from wind and flying debris, and it _was_ scary hearing trees crashland after a brief flight) and have never been killed, injured, or suffered major property loss, Most typically, you lose part of the roof and some landscaping and it’s repairable. Doesn’t mean mean I’ll be unscathed in the next one, but one of the remarkable things about twisters is _how few_ people lose their lives despite the incredible violence and destruction of these storms. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-install-a-storm-shelter-in-the-backyard/614665/11 "2012-03-04T01:10:56Z")
> [@Michael63129](#): > > That said, if one did hit my house, I don’t know how much my basement would protect me since only half of it is actually underground (the backyard is level with the floor). It’s still a concrete foundation? In that case, you should be fine. The concrete I think is the major protection (or at least equal to the underground affect). ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-install-a-storm-shelter-in-the-backyard/614665/12 "2012-03-04T01:39:03Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > OMIGOSH! How do people live in California with the earthquakes? Nobody has died in a California earthquake [in over eight years](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_earthquakes_in_California). Over the same period, 965 people were [killed by tornados in the US.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_American_tornadoes_and_tornado_outbreaks#2000.E2.80.932009) ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-install-a-storm-shelter-in-the-backyard/614665/13 "2012-03-04T02:16:11Z")
Uh-huh… Compare the number of serious earthquakes with the number of tornadoes - tornadoes are FAR more common than notable earthquakes. You don’t hear about the thousands of people who survive tornadoes unscathed every year because it’s not newsworthy. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-install-a-storm-shelter-in-the-backyard/614665/14 "2012-03-04T03:05:35Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Uh-huh… > > Compare the number of serious earthquakes with the number of tornadoes - tornadoes are FAR more common than notable earthquakes. You don’t hear about the thousands of people who survive tornadoes unscathed every year because it’s not newsworthy. That is pretty much my point. Killer tornadoes are far more dangerous than killer earthquakes, because they are far more common. By the way, there are [thousands of earthquakes a year](http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqscanv/) in California that don’t kill anybody. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-install-a-storm-shelter-in-the-backyard/614665/15 "2012-03-04T03:16:35Z")
We made it through the April 27th tornado last year under a mattress in the hall with a dog and two cats. Luckily, the house only had very minor damage but there was complete destruction all around. Some of our family and friends had homes severely damaged or destroyed. I know of two couples who split up afterwards, in part, due to post tornado stress. There are still parts of town which are basically untouched piles of rubble. That’s the closest I’ve ever came to actually being in a tornado and I certainly don’t want to experience it again. > **[2011 Super Outbreak](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2011_Super_outbreak&mobileaction=view_normal_site)** > > The 2011 Super Outbreak was the largest, costliest, and one of the deadliest tornado outbreaks ever recorded, taking place in the Southern, Midwestern, and Northeastern United States from April 25 to 28, 2011, leaving catastrophic destruction in its wake. Over 175 tornadoes struck Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, which were the most severely damaged states. Other destructive tornadoes occurred in Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, New York, and Virginia, with storms also aff In total, ... ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-install-a-storm-shelter-in-the-backyard/614665/16 "2012-03-04T03:23:52Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Hawaii has volcanoes and sharks. And there’s that one island that has \*volcanoes \*that shoot \*sharks \*at you! ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-install-a-storm-shelter-in-the-backyard/614665/17 "2012-03-04T04:17:47Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > That is pretty much my point. Killer tornadoes are far more dangerous than killer earthquakes, because they are far more common. > > By the way, there are [thousands of earthquakes a year](http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqscanv/) in California that don’t kill anybody. I guess you completely missed the part where I said MAJOR or SIGNIFICANT earthquakes. Because, you know, there are also a crapload of earthquakes every year in the US Midwest, too, but they’re too small to notice. Rather like dust-devils are “funnel” shaped winds but are too weak to be an issue. MY point was that the average tornado usually doesn’t kill _anyone_ despite the destruction they leave. Peoples’ opinions are colored by only hearing about the BIG HUGE OMIGOD KILLER TWISTER ones, not the small ones that just knock a few shingles off a couple roofs and maybe knock over some trees. Rather like all those small quakes in California never make the national news, just the OMIGOD END OF THE WORLD ones. Sure, you’re less likely to die in a earthquake in, say, Japan because they - surprise! - write their building codes to accommodate shaking and have in place various emergency procedures, but a smaller quake in Haiti will kill thousands because they _don’t_ have that in place. Likewise, the Tornado Alley folks have some notion how to maximize safety in the event of a tornado and thus the per tornado (comparing tornadoes of similar force) death rate is probably lower in the Midwest than for tornadoes that occur where they are very rare. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-install-a-storm-shelter-in-the-backyard/614665/18 "2012-03-04T04:21:03Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > And there’s that one island that has \*volcanoes \*that shoot \*sharks \*at you! You know, **Eve,** that doesn’t really help when I’m trying to be rational and moderate the media-generated hysteria over a relatively common (in the US Midwest) weather phenomena. Yes, tornadoes are Serious Stuff, but they aren’t Instant Death, not any more than a lot of other natural phenomena that you shouldn’t take lightly but aren’t doomsday, either. ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-install-a-storm-shelter-in-the-backyard/614665/19 "2012-03-04T04:39:00Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Whole towns disappeared this week. What the heck is going on in this world? Tornado destruction is not so new. Remember the super outbreak devastation in Xenia, Ohio, in 1974? I was living in Madison, Wisconsin when Barneveld was destroyed by an F-5 tornado in 1984. As you say, priairie homes all had cyclone shelters way back when. It was just good sense. Good for you for getting the shelter and stocking it, and doing what you need to do to take care of your loved ones, and for peace of mind. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-install-a-storm-shelter-in-the-backyard/614665/20 "2012-03-04T04:55:59Z")
If you want your house to be tornado proof, build a dome home. They are notoriously safe from high winds and tornadoes. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-install-a-storm-shelter-in-the-backyard/614665.md?page=2)