Storm shelters

I found this tomato can representing itself as a storm shelter as a EF5 survivor and seeing up close and personal what these big bad boys are capable of doing I would not put my family or myself in one like this and expect to come out alive. This one was 1/4 inch tank steel no inside rib support just a box partially welded at the seams and held to the garage cement floor with minimum 5/8 bolts. :shock::shock:

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But Charley… they have pictures and everything on their website!!! :p:roll::mrgreen:

After seeing the destruction and death in Joplin, my wife asked me why didn’t everyone in “Tornado Alley” have an underground shelter? Seems like maybe less than 1 in 100 did…

http://www.nachi.org/safe-rooms.htm

Ya betcha but people also advertise that they can walk on water. After the EF5 that wiped me out in 91 and the crazy things I saw you could not pour me into a storm shelter constructed in that manner. My storm shelter has reinforced 6 inch concrete walls half below ground half above

Just curious. Why not all the way underground.

I would guesstimate that around 90% of the homes in my area (SW Ohio) have basements.

I miss stated the depth my shelter is constructed with the front door on a 45 degree angle and about the top 1/3 is above ground not much for the wind to grab.
Not that many basements here perhaps 10% F5’s with 270 MPH winds like the one I went through can pull the pavement off of the highways I would not feel too comfortable with just the floor of the home as protection. I don’t want anything above me that can come crashing down but maybe that is just me. I am just like a Rat I want a hole in the ground

a man sure wouldn’t want to trust the safety of His red hat to such a questionable structure…

Sounds like a helluva good storm shelter. You would think with the storms of late that building shelters such as yours would be a lucrative business, especially in your part of the country.

I hear you about things above that could come crashing down, God help anyone who is not in a shelter like yours, underground, encased with concrete should they be so unfortunate to have an F5 hit them.

One of my earliest childhood memories was seeing one of the Palm Sunday Tornadoes of the 1965 outbreak. I was three and half years old at the time & have had a great respect for those monsters ever since. We didn’t take a direct hit but it was close enough to knock out all of our windows.

Even with a shelter they can hit you while you are sleeping before you know they are coming.

Under the I beam for me and hugging a post.Sirens going off right now as a matter of fact.

Bob as for hugging a steel post you may as well put your head between your knees kiss your Butt goodbye

Kelvar storm shelters

(In an emergency, the first responders can remove the air vents from outside, reach hand in, and unlock the slider bolts that hold the door closed.)

Lets hope the intruder doesn’t know that.
…and it’s steel so it acts like a Faraday cage. Unless the power lines land on it…