Do Dallas/Fort Worth homes need storm shelters? (Panhandle, Howe: house, tornado)

[lolamom]

My sister is very concerned that we are considering a home without a basement. She wants to know what our plan will be if a tornado hits. I had not given this a ton of thought. Is her worry legit?

[GHJohn]

I am sure you can always have a storm shelter installed in the back yard. Check this out

Storm and Tornado Shelters of Texas - Storm Shelter , Tornado Shelter and Safe Room Headquarters

[lh_newbie]

DFW has over 6 million people living in it. I bet there are less than 1/10th a percent of the people with some sort of storm shelter. Certainly nothing wrong with having one, but I'm not overly worried about it. There are barely any homes that have basements in DFW.

[nsumner]

A lot of people use the closet that is under the stairs as a shelter, many times it wraps around and plenty of room for a few people.

If it really is a big concern to you and if you are building from scratch, you can have the builder add a reinforced room in the downstairs closet, may be by the master bedroom. I have seen that in some of the most discerning homes.

[honu1]

Very few people have storm shelters I think this may have something to do with 1) the difficulty of digging here...large beds of limestone tend to run underground and 2) in my 8 years of living in TX, there seems to be far fewer tornados than in places to the north, such as OK. I recently saw a tv show (discovery channel or something of the sort) that talked about the huge number of tornados in tx and I was surprised. That hasn't been my experience with living here.

You can never predict mother nature with 100% certainty. However, I can tell you that I have only once since moving to TX become so concerned with the weather that I actually hunkered down in the innermost room of my house to ride out a storm.

[lh_newbie]

The Panhandle is the hotbed of activity for tornados - we're East of "tornado alley". Texas is a big state.

[Canine*Castle]

Originally Posted by lolamom

My sister is very concerned that we are considering a home without a basement. She wants to know what our plan will be if a tornado hits. I had not given this a ton of thought. Is her worry legit?

I always said I would never live in Texas without a storm cellar, but I did for 19 years and was a wreck during the thunderstorms with potential tornadoes in the forecast. After all that time and fright, it was enough for me and am pleased to say I had one put in. In Tarrant and Dallas Counties, they have more threats and actual bad weather than where I live in Hill County but nevertheless, we get our share of severe weather. It gives me so much peace of mind and the investment, quite minimal, was so worth it. Even with high winds, I feel so much safer as they can wreak havoc as well.

Is her worry legitimate? I would say not to worry as it'll drive you nuts but to have concern is definitely legit.

[Canine*Castle]

Originally Posted by lh_newbie

The Panhandle is the hotbed of activity for tornados - we're East of "tornado alley". Texas is a big state.

According to the link below, I'd say it's a close race with the metroplex and the panhandle.

[ChristieP]

Keep in mind that the larger tornadoes (F3 and above) are VERY rare in North Texas.
A little F1 tornado may just rip branches off trees and pull a few shingles off your roof.

The best thing is to be prepared, and make sure your house has a ground-floor interior room where you can take cover if needed.