storm shelters (Cookeville, Lake Tansi: house, construction, tornado)

[lae60]

Does any one have or is anyone putting in a storm shelter? I know that I should have one, but am not sure about the specifics.

The underground ones seem safer to me, just in concept, but my property is on the plateau and I am pretty sure it is all rock a foot or so down. But the above ground ones seem like they would just blow away along with the car...even if bolted down. It seems they are placed in a garage and it seems that would be the first door to blow off (that is the garage door). Oh, and the underground ones installed in the garage seem like they could get covered with the left over paint and the car, etc, pretty easily, so they could either be blocked or have fumes come in that are pretty bad.

So what do you recommend and any specific companies that are known to install in this area? Or ones to avoid?

[scrantonscrambler]

We have a tornado room in our basement, 20'L X 6'W x 10' height. It was designed/built in when we had our home constructed 9 yrs ago. One end has 5 rows of shelves that are 6' long each. We have those shelves filled with emergency supplies, canned food, water, chain saw/fuel, Ax and all sorts of tools. The other end has folding chairs and a 4 drawer metal filing cabinet where we keep our important papers all year long. Have plastic tubs filled with blankets and extra clothes. 2 weather radios that can run on battery or hand crank power......and the list of what we have in there would fill a page.... dog food, cat litter box, guns, spare batteries, bags of charcoal, matches, candles, oil lamp, etc.

We are glad to have it and are well prepared. We usually get to "try it out" maybe twice a year or whenever the sirens go off. We also have our "drill" a couple times a year. All the important stuff that already isn't stored in the room is at easy reach to grab in a hurry, checkbook, extra cash, wallet, purse, hand guns, etc. Each family member has been assigned what to grab when that siren goes off, including the pets. All of those items, (except for the house pets ) are put in the same place every night before bedtime so they can be grabbed up real quick if need be.

Thankfully the warning sirens can easily be heard at our home. My feeling is most folks should have a shelter but many around here don't.

A friend of ours just had one buried in their backyard, top entry, but it is easy digging in South Cookeville.

I don't know if links or recommendations of vendors are allowed here but if you google "tornado shelters Middle TN " you can go on information overload, plenty to choose from and some have slick, descriptive and very informative websites. As always, be sure to check out the credentials of any vendor you may be interested in doing business with. That goes no matter where you live.

Ours is partly in the garage, fumes are a non issue. I see many shelters advertised with a door that opens "out" and I kind of understand why, but if debris or a car gets blowed up against the egress door it may be problematic getting out. I set mine up with a steel door which opens inward but the way mine works it will doubtfully get blown in. I was a building demolition guy for 30+ years and learned a few tricks along the way.

Good luck, hopefully you will never need to use your shelter but the peace of mind is well worth the expense.

Which puts me in mind of the old 50's Twilite Zone episode where only one family on the block had a bomb shelter

[lae60]

Thanks for the information. My house is modular construction so I am pretty confident it will blow apart easily in a tornado. I do notknow of a way to make it stronger. I am also on Lake Tansi so am limited to putting something in the front yard or in the garage. The lake is in the back yard and I would hate to have the water come into the shelter.

There also are large flat rocks sticking out of the front yard so I am pretty sure it gets to pretty solid rock at a foot or two down.

I am thinking that my best option may be to build another garage and put a storm shelter in the garage. I think that underground under a new garage may be best, but do not think it can happen with the rock. The community storm shelter is on the far side of the lake, and not real practical for me--2 kids, 1 dog and 5 cats....