Public "Storm Shelters"(large buildings) in East Dallas

[westhou]

Originally Posted by clickbear

If you feel the need to purchase a shelter you can get on the north central Texas safe room rebate from FEMA. It will pay for half the cost. Most people on the wait list opt out when it is their turn. You can get an in ground shelter starting at $1.5k with the rebate. An in house safe room will run a little bit more. The paperwork is a pain and it is usually 6 months later when the rebate is received.

It might even knock a few bucks off the home owner policy depending on the company.

$1.5K for a lifetime of peace of mind seems worth it. I'd probably go for the safe room because flooding can also come with a tornado (at least here in Houston).

[trc_everything]

Those who were killed in their cars is what's scariest. The increased traffic jams due to the influx of people to DFW would make a tornado of this magnitude striking during weekday rush hour significantly more deadly. Perhaps I have too much faith in humanity, but isn't telling people to stay off the road when a tornado is coming kind of stating the obvious? None of us know for sure why those victims happened to be on I-30 at the time. Perhaps they were trying to do exactly what you're supposed to do and get to a structure where they could seek interior shelter.

[Acntx]

Originally Posted by #1soonerfan

I hope they are not doing this...this is about the worst thing you can do.

A bridge overpass acts as a restriction on highly pressurized, fast moving air. Its like placing you thumb over a hose of water. The air, like the water in the hose, actually speeds up. Combine that with flying debris, and it can be a deadly combination. Several people took shelter under an overpass on I-35 when a tornado hit Moore, OK back in 1999. Two were killed, and several others sustained violent and gruesome injuries from flying debris.



Oh god. Please stop. I have held my tongue, but add me to the list of people who have been really bothered by how many posts on here have blown off the tornado threat in this area. And frankly I do not feel most of the general population here takes tornadoes as near as seriously as they should. Maybe walking around a neighborhood that was just flattened by one and helping friends pick through what's left of their lives as I did 2 years ago has given me a healthy respect that many here lack.

Not only is your post is inaccurate (there have been fatal F4s in Granbury in 2013 and in Lancaster in 1994, as well as several more within 100 miles), it is highly irresponsible. An F3 with 206 mph winds will maim and kill just as much as an F4 with 207 mph winds. And not to scare anyone, but given DFWs high population density, it would not take an F5 or F4 to cause a lot of damage.

Not sure if you've ever met someone who has been injured in a tornado. I met several when I was still in Oklahoma. All but one went through something smaller than an F5 (and there probably is a reason for that as you chances of survival in that situation are low)...I would not wish what they went through on my worst enemy. Not to be crude, but it's really one of the worst ways to go.

I think everyone agrees that DFW is not in the core bullseye of Tornado Alley, but the risk is still pretty high here. And more importantly than that, there has been a definite uptick in tornado activity (this past year was a record for this area). There isn't some magical force field that protects Dallas...it is a real threat that should be taken seriously.

If anything good can come out of the past few days, I hope these attitudes like this are on their way out.

+1

I was just about to point out the incorrect statements in that post, but you beat me to it. Having witnessed a tornado barreling toward my house in 2012 and seeing numerous homes in my neighborhood reduced to rubble makes me take any risk of severe weather seriously. That tornado was only a high-end EF-2 and the aftermath still looked like a bomb had gone off in the area.

[MurphyPl1]

Originally Posted by trc_everything

Those who were killed in their cars is what's scariest. The increased traffic jams due to the influx of people to DFW would make a tornado of this magnitude striking during weekday rush hour significantly more deadly. Perhaps I have too much faith in humanity, but isn't telling people to stay off the road when a tornado is coming kind of stating the obvious? None of us know for sure why those victims happened to be on I-30 at the time. Perhaps they were trying to do exactly what you're supposed to do and get to a structure where they could seek interior shelter.

Nope. At least one was chit chatting on the phone with her hubby. Another was called by family with a warning she blew off.

[elan]

Originally Posted by whj3773

with the nado yesterday in MS, got me thinking of where i would go if there was a high chance of tornadoes. Live near WRL in a one story pier and beam so more or less no shelter against a violent tornado and im not willing to roll the dice to wait to figure out if its only a ef1


I was thinking about watching the radar, and then about 20 mins out head to one of the following locations:

Whole Foods Parking Garage at park lane
Mockingbird Station
Northpark Mall

Thoughts?

First off, I wouldn't discount your old pier and beam. My pier and beam was built before WW2, the house was built like a tank. The door to the crawl space is in a hallway closet. My plan is to stand in it and crouch down if need be. I don't trust the parking lot at Whole Foods, the south side of the first level is exposed anyway. Mockingbird Station would be okay. Northpark Mall has a basement, so that one's okay. Did you see Northpark on Saturday afternoon though, the traffic was unreal. My phone sent a shout out about twenty minutes before it's expected arrival downtown, less than a hour before it hit Garland. That's not enough time to get safely anywhere in this town. If it starts hailing, the selfish ones will stop under the overpasses anyway, so there you are - stuck. Oh, and what are you going to do at night. If you don't trust your crawlspace, get a closet shelter, charge it and pay it out.

[whj3773]

i have no interior room, luckily i was out of town last sat when the nados hit but i can tell you we would had had more than adequate time to drive to a larger structure, i was following the radar and twitter closely, and i knew early on it looked like it was going to be bad.

i assume people out and about that afternoon were just not paying attention to the weather warnings which were posted up to nearly 24 hours in advance

[elan]

Originally Posted by whj3773

i have no interior room, luckily i was out of town last sat when the nados hit but i can tell you we would had had more than adequate time to drive to a larger structure, i was following the radar and twitter closely, and i knew early on it looked like it was going to be bad.

i assume people out and about that afternoon were just not paying attention to the weather warnings which were posted up to nearly 24 hours in advance

What, prey tell, are you going to do at night?

[ChristieP]

An interior room can be a closet or a bathroom. The smaller the room, the better the tornado shelter.

If you don't already have a weather app on your smartphone that makes loud noises when there is a severe weather alert, I strongly recommend you get one before spring.

[Ron1157]

Sorry, don't know where the source was. I saw it online when trying to find out what was going on. My daughter had recently moved to Texas from California and I was just blown away when I realized that everyone, or at least most people didn't have underground shelters to go to. So that no matter where you are, you don't need to drive ANYWHERE to find shelter. At the very least should be required for all new structures to build in Tornado Shelters. Sorry about the source. It must not have been a reliable one.