Are Safe Rooms Safe? (tornadoes, warm, days, storms)
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I'm hoping some of you severe weather experts out there can provide me with some important information.
For about six months out of the year, I live with an irrational fear of tornadoes. I have no basement and tend to go completely insane during strong or severe storms. In order to keep my family from killing me when storms come through, I checked with several companies to see about installing an underground storm shelter. Unfortunately, based on the fact my yard is very rocky, the cost to blast would be too significant. Now I am investigating above ground steel Safe Rooms that are bolted to the house foundation. I have contacted a few vendors, and the price seems reasonable. My remaining concern is their true safety value.
Has anyone ever heard of someone not surviving or becoming injured while taking shelter in an above-ground Safe Room? They appear to be guaranteed up to an F4 tornado, but I would feel much better if I could get more assurance from someone not in the business of selling them.
Google National Storm Shelter Association for more information on tornado shelters.
But yes, there are above ground shelters that are safe, but I am not sure about attaching to the house foundation, most I have seen are built on their own foundation.
Texas Tech University does a lot of testing for winds on the shelters to see if they will hold up.
And, many have weathered acutal storms as they are growing in popularity.
Many towns have applied for grants, ours included, and have gotten them to build community storm shelters which have to be done a certain way to meed standards set up by the government.
Thank you so much for the information . I will be sure to check out the National Storm Shelter Assoc website. Any assurance I can receive that this will be the best decision for me is greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much for the information . I will be sure to check out the National Storm Shelter Assoc website. Any assurance I can receive that this will be the best decision for me is greatly appreciated.
Geog, have you checked if there is a tornado shelter in your area? Not sure if you have them down South, but we generally have them up here. Population of my town is 17,000 and we have two shelters. Many people don't know where they are though and it's always safe to find one that's close to you.
here in Florida, I freak out, and, got a weather radio, from publix, and yes it works, and the cost, is only 30.00. then just go to a room without windows. going to a shelter, is not always feasable, here, people only had a notice, at night of less than 2minutes.
my thought, get the weather radio! even with a safe shelter, late at night, you would be sound to sleep, and not even know. that is what happened here. we do not have safe
rooms.
Jammie - It sounds like your town is well prepared and truly cares for the well being and safety of its residents.
When I first moved here 12 years ago, I did investigate to see if there were community shelters in the area, but the only places I found that had shelters were a couple of mobile home parks that serviced only those particular communities. Now, even those mobile home neighborhoods are gone, as Atlanta has experienced such tremendous growth northward. Most people here probably do not think that the tornado frequency warrants such shelters, and if there were any designated safe places, a tornado warning would probably create a traffic jam of residents trying to get to them in the middle of the storm.
I do have a very handy weather radio, which has helped me be prepared when there is an imminent threat, but it is the emotional anxiety that is so hard to bear. I was on the fringe of the Dekalb/Gwinnett county tornado during April 1998, and I hope to never go through such an experience again, at least not without some guaranteed protection.
Geog, I'm sorry to hear that. I don't know much about Atlanta except it's HUGE and warm.
Yes, I guess our town is pretty prepared for storms. They broadcast the two locations on the radio as soon as there are weather warnings and they continue doing so throughout the storms. DH is responsible for opening one of them and I always go along~AND we take our pets. It's not our nearest one~the one we would normally go to, but it's supposedly very safe and of course, we're always in the basement. There are always people who pull off the interstate and stay there~also a lot of mobile home dwellers and some older people who just don't want to be alone. In a weird way, it's just kind of fun. We just all sit around and chat and watch tv to see where the storm is.
Sorry, I thought that every place had something like that.
Jammie,
The only weather shelters I've ever heard of were for mobile home parks. Most people have basements. We only have half of one...split entry..so I worry about storms too. Under the stairs which is near the front of the house and only partially underground or the utility room that has another outside wall on the north side with a bathroom. If the tornado is like that one in Kansas this year neither option would have been very safe since it scraped foundations clean. I worry with an aboveground safe room of being trapped under debris for days and days..."entombed"...creepy!!!
We're in Omaha so Spring and Fall can be interesting
Wow, I didn't realize that Omaha didn't have the shelters either.
Actually, I don't mind being specific. Our two shelters here are the County Courthouse and the Public Safety Building. And yea~I imagine a FIVE could probably wreak havoc even on those buildings.
Jammie,
Do you go to a shelter evertime there is a severe weather outbreak? considering the number of warnings per year? I'm just curious. Recently we had very severe weather..well in August...I wouldn't have gotten in the car and risked hail or having large tree branches hit us, flooded streets and severe lightening and 70 mph winds to reach the shelter. Do you live in a home or a mobile home? People in mobile home parks don't have any choice.
Wednesday oct 17 they're saying OK and TX could have a springlike outbreak of tornadoes. WOW
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. I will be sure to check out the National Storm Shelter Assoc website. Any assurance I can receive that this will be the best decision for me is greatly appreciated.
No community shelters
