We need your help! (Huntsville: house, school, tornado)

[Wandering_Missourian]

Storm shelters are increasingly popular around here since the April 27th, 2011 tornado outbreak. Unlike in Oklahoma where large areas can be uniformly dangerous for tornadoes, tornado climatology is quite different around the Huntsville area. The areas southeast of Huntsville on the east side of Green Mountain (Hampton Cove, Owens Cross Roads, New Hope, Gurley) rarely have tornadoes hit in that region. On the flipside, the most dangerous place in all of the Southeastern United States is in a line from Tanner to Harvest. This is a well-defined long-track tornado hotspot, with F5/EF5 tornadoes crossing thru Tanner in both the 1974 and 2011 super-outbreaks. You couldn't pay me enough money to live out there. Everyone and their brother is moving out that way, which will end up being a terrible mistake long-term. As for Guntersville, I don't think it has been hit any time recently... but tornadoes did hit Guntersville State Park to the east in 2011, and Sand Mountain gets hit frequently.

Alabama is now the deadliest state for tornadoes in the country. A storm shelter is a wise investment if you can afford it.

[Wandering_Missourian]

If the tornado thing is a really, really big deal... I would recommend looking at Chattanooga too. They haven't had a tornado death in the city itself since at least the 1880s, if ever. Being backed up to the eastern edge of the Cumberland protects them a lot.

[CoreLysium]

Originally Posted by Starkeytoo

Keeper:
What do you guys do for tornado protection? Not seeing any storm shelters in anything online. Doesn't anyone have these? We get vicious storms here and underground storm shelters are popular.

For tornado protection, I use "Big Sky Theory" which was taught to the stealth fighter pilots in the first Gulf War. See, the sky is so big, and their planes were so small, relatively, that all the anti-aircraft guns shooting bullets into the air had a nearly infinitesimal chance of hitting them. And, in fact, none were hit.

99.99% or probably more will never in their life have a tornado hit their house. The one time that it looked like one was headed my way, I drove across town to my mother-in-law's house.

You can build a storm shelter, sure.

Unlike a hurricane, earthquake, tsunami, forest fire, etc, a tornado takes a path. Not a very wide one either. And just goes through an area.

Now, there is a place on Guntersville Lake that has the mountains around it shaped so that tornadoes do go through there as their path. The mountains kind of funnel them in. Or at least a friend of mine's parents' lake house getting hit twice in ten years seems to indicate that.

If you are going to die from weather here, it'll be heatstroke.

[Starkeytoo]

thanks for the help everybody!!!! I know I sound like a big baby regarding tornadoes, but I'm a California born and raised girl, and watched Wizard of Oz too many times)))...seriously, we've been here in Oklahoma going on two years now and have heard the sirens often and had 3 touch down within two miles of us last year. We don't have a storm shelter here and would feel much safer if we had at least a central room with no windows, which we do not have here in this house. The F5 that hit Moore several months back was horrific, and the only way to have survived was to go underground. I think we'll try to afford an underground shelter there in Alabama if we can.

[CoreLysium]

I don't mean to diminish the impact a tornado has. It's just, as natural disasters go, they really don't rank very high.

For damage caused by natural stuff, I think flooding wins hands down. Heat kills the most.

Edited to add:
Did some googling...

Southerners are more like to die from the effects of the weather than people living in any other region of the US.


But for all the attention garnered by catastrophic hurricanes such as Katrina and Andrew, simple heatwaves kill far more people than all natural disasters combined, according to a newly published county-by-county map of natural hazard deaths (see the maps here).


Other extreme summer hazards, such as floods, and cold winter weather also outranked hurricanes, earthquakes, and wildfires, according to geographers Kevin Borden and Susan Cutter, of the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Overall, natural disasters account for less than 5% of natural hazard deaths across the US.

From http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16287-death-map-usa-natural-disaster-hotspots-revealed.html#.UmdIwBCR27

[Keeper]

The 2011 tornado super outbreak did come through close to where I live but that was the first tornadoe to hit near here in over 30 years. More people have put in storm Shelter.

Now a days more and more people are putting in storm shelters either in their garage or in their home.

If you are looking to slow down then I think you will like someplace like Guntersville. Nice little city and has more shopping than we do here in Arab. The Lake is beautiful and surrounded by mountains. I remember when I first moved here one day I had to wait for 3 cars to pass before I could pull out on the Hwy. I told my daughter it was time to move it had gotten too busy here.

Come for a visit. There is a good hospital and doctors near by. I love it here and wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

[zenjenn]

Core - did you make that map yourself? It gave e a good chuckle this morning.

[CoreLysium]

Yes, but I got the idea from another map I saw here about where to live in Albuquerque.

There's a line that's on the wrong side of Sparkman on the west side. Those apartments to the north of University x Sparkman should be inside the larger no zone.

[Starkeytoo]

You guys are terrific....making me laugh this morning. Can you believe we have already sold our house here in Broken Arrow, OK? It only took 13 days. WOW!!!! Making flight plans now to come into Huntsville on the 13th of Nov. to look for a condo/townhouse for Mom and me. I appreciate all of your help. I'm so excited to be an Alabaman and be a part of the Crimson Tide))))

[Starkeytoo]

Originally Posted by Keeper

The 2011 tornado super outbreak did come through close to where I live but that was the first tornadoe to hit near here in over 30 years. More people have put in storm Shelter.

Now a days more and more people are putting in storm shelters either in their garage or in their home.

If you are looking to slow down then I think you will like someplace like Guntersville. Nice little city and has more shopping than we do here in Arab. The Lake is beautiful and surrounded by mountains. I remember when I first moved here one day I had to wait for 3 cars to pass before I could pull out on the Hwy. I told my daughter it was time to move it had gotten too busy here.

Come for a visit. There is a good hospital and doctors near by. I love it here and wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

We're flying in on the 13th to look at homes, we sold our house here in Broken Arrow yesterday. We are going to add Guntersville to the list. We are craving peace and quiet, sounds lovely.