Tornado Shelter

[Darren M]

That's amazing......

[FATHERFORD]

[8mpg]

Well Im not a lot of help but I heard on the radio that FEMA will be doing $3000 credits towards North Texas tornado shelters. You will have to choose from their list of approved contractors. Great deal if you are serious about buying one. Cant be in a flood plain. Good for Tarrant, Denton, Dallas and I believe Grayson counties.

[petyweestraw]

Could you pour a small slab outside and have them come cut it for tha metal drop in?

[Darren M]

Would still need a roof over the thing. OTherwise you'd have a small pool

[petyweestraw]

Didn't they offer a cover? Besides it would go under a carport if it happened.

[ceyko]

Well Im not a lot of help but I heard on the radio that FEMA will be doing $3000 credits towards North Texas tornado shelters. You will have to choose from their list of approved contractors. Great deal if you are serious about buying one. Cant be in a flood plain. Good for Tarrant, Denton, Dallas and I believe Grayson counties.

Been hearing the same, but anything I find is the old outdated stuff.

...in regards to water getting into them...

1. They make a flush kind with a cover. i.e. if you wanted to roll a table saw over it - you could with the cover off of it. Generally speaking if it were outside this one would not work.

2. The offer one that pokes up a few inches out of the ground too. I'd still put a cover over this one (car port...etc) - since it's not really THAT high up. It would be resistant to water coming from a small run of water...etc...etc though.

[juiceweezl]

Like I posted yesterday... Who the fuck puts a shelter above ground? Sure companies do it, but that lacks common sense. Look at the pictures from yesterday. It carried entire houses away. "Safe rooms" aren't going to protect you from anything. Underground has proven to work time and time again.

Brent, your statement seems logical, but it's not accurate. My job has placed me in damaged areas for years, and as I stated earlier, my company is affiliated with several people that offer shelters. Many of them use our products. The reason the shelter industry was created is because damaged areas started showing a trend -- entire houses leveled save for one small space the size of a closet in the interior. Granted those small spaces weren't "safe" as they were constructed, but it gave birth to what you now see.

Certified safe rooms/shelters installed above ground work. They have to go through rigorous testing including having a 7' 2x4 shot at it at 100mph. They work, but they aren't cheap and they aren't easy to build. The idea of a tornado shelter is that you can take a direct hit from the majority of storms, have the house take severe damage, and walk out alive. They accomplish that.

For those of you preparing to build or looking for more info on storms, the typical wind speeds, construction techniques, etc., check out this technical bulletin.

http://www.strongtie.com/ftp/bulletins/T-TORNADO12.pdf

[bcoop]

Brent, your statement seems logical, but it's not accurate.

People can make any claims they want. Show me one of these above ground shelters that has seen a direct hit from a F5 tornado and is not completely obliterated. Shooting a 2x4 at 100 mph =/= the 200+ mph wind speeds that tornados create.

[kpc01]

Well Im not a lot of help but I heard on the radio that FEMA will be doing $3000 credits towards North Texas tornado shelters. You will have to choose from their list of approved contractors. Great deal if you are serious about buying one. Cant be in a flood plain. Good for Tarrant, Denton, Dallas and I believe Grayson counties.

If anyone has any more info on this I'd be interested here in Denton county. I'd be looking to do one of those in the garage setups. I really like that idea

[kpc01]

ok, found the link:

http://www.nctsaferoom.com/

they pay 1/2 of the bill up to 3k. Going to look at installers for the garage type and see what I can find.

[Chas_svo]

Also only the first 110 per county...