# 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:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-install-a-storm-shelter-in-the-backyard/614665/21 "2012-03-04T05:40:23Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > How on earth do you folks \*live \*in Tornado Alley!? In NY, was it really just days between the [earthquake](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/24/us/24quake.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all) and the [hurricane](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/nyregion/new-yorkers-warned-of-possible-electrical-shutdown.html?pagewanted=all)? And there are faults beneath and near NY that could produce damage. > [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > 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)… > > That is pretty much my point. Killer tornadoes are far more dangerous than killer earthquakes, because they are far more common. I saw an estimate that, in a repeat of the 1906 San Francisco quake, which the USGS says will almost certainly happen, 10,000 people will be killed outright and 40,000 injured mostly from falling unreinforced brick and masonry buildings. And it’ll happen with NO warning and NO POSSIBLITY of warning at all. So from tornadoes we get about 10,000 dead spread over 80 years and all of Tornado Alley, and from a killer quake 10,000 dead in seconds within (guessing) 50 miles. If you had to deal with one or the other, which would you choose? FTR, I live in Chicago and tornado sirens do scare me. But I also lived near SF for a number of years and was there for the quake of '89 as well as a number of smaller but significant quakes. When I moved back to Chicago, for the first year or two just the initial rumbles from a thunderstorm would scare me. And I acknowledge Chicago could get damage when the New Madrid fault gives way again. ---
**Author:** ![Foggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foggy/32/1082_2.png) [@Foggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foggy)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-install-a-storm-shelter-in-the-backyard/614665/22 "2012-03-04T07:35:19Z")
> [@](#): > > So from tornadoes we get about 10,000 dead spread over 80 years and all of Tornado Alley, and from a killer quake 10,000 dead in seconds within (guessing) 50 miles. If you had to deal with one or the other, which would you choose? San Francisco hands down. 🙂 ---
**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, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-install-a-storm-shelter-in-the-backyard/614665/23 "2012-03-04T18:39:13Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > You don’t suppose there might be something to that global climate change nonsense, do you? Not like there hasn’t been an [unprecedented increase](http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/06/1062174/-Jeff-Masters-the-Climate-Has-Shifted-to-a-New-State) in extreme weather events in recent years; [check out the increase in severe weather losses](http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2012/03/04/437185/tornadoes-extreme-weather-climate-change/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+climateprogress%2FlCrX+%28Climate+Progress%29) (note that inflation and population increase don’t come even close to explaining the increase; tornado deaths are also rising again after falling for decades due to better knowledge and warnings; as bad as the super outbreak last April was, it probably would have been much worse a few decades ago). PS: I hope you were being sarcastic when you said it was nonsense; [a majority of Americans](http://insideclimatenews.org/breaking-news/20120229/us-belief-climate-change-rise) (despite the commonly held views on the U.S. and climate change) certainly believe in it (of course, it is mainly because they experienced unusual weather, not because of science, so the numbers change depending on recent weather, which is the wrong way to “believe” in it). Also, with regards to tornado vs. earthquake death tolls, it has been speculated that a tornado [could kill over 10,000 if it directly hit a major city](http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=658): > [@](#): > > What would happen if a violent, long-track EF4 or EF5 tornado ripped through a densely populated urban area like Chicago? That was the question posed by tornado researcher Josh Wurman of the Center for Severe Weather Research in Boulder and three co-authors in a paper published in the January 2007 issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. Their astonishing answer: damage of $40 billion and 13,000-45,000 people killed–the deadliest natural disaster in American history. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-install-a-storm-shelter-in-the-backyard/614665.md?page=1)