Outdoor vs garage below-ground storm shelters???

[El Pablo]

Get a battery operated fan and boxed water for whichever one you get…

I’m claustrophobic, I hate them all. I bought an in ground in the garage. I can get in it if/when needed. If it says it’s for 8, it mean 4 will fit. I wish I bought a bigger, wider one (I bought an 8 person flatsafe).

If I build a house. I’ll have a panic/tornado/gun room built above ground. It will be far more comfortable.

 

[KOPBET]

I have thought about getting a tornado shelter of some sort, but there hasn't been a tornado greater than F3 in thirty years (F3 in 92 and an F4 in 93). All of which did happen, none have ever come close to where I live. I get that it can still happen, but right now I just can't justify the expense in my mind.

 

[Okie4570]

The safest? Below ground on the west side of your house. The most practical for an able bodied person? In the garage floor. The most practical for a person who has physical mobility issues? Above ground in the house. All that said, the house we live in was built in 2001, as the previous house was wiped from off the foundation in 1999 by a tornado. The current shelter that we have is in the garage floor on the NW corner of the garage, has a flip open steel door and the door facing has a 4" raised lip to keep any water from running in. The homeowner who lived here during the tornado was in the same shelter at the time and his truck ended up on the shelter door and a large portion of the roof was on the truck. Neighbors came to check him shortly after and within 30 min with a couple large tractors with front end loaders they pulled everything off and got him out. We moved here in 2005.

 

[Okie4570]

I have thought about getting a tornado shelter of some sort, but there hasn't been a tornado greater than F3 in thirty years (F3 in 92 and an F4 in 93). All of which did happen, none have ever come close to where I live. I get that it can still happen, but right now I just can't justify the expense in my mind.

There's so much heads up and alerting systems in today's world, if anyone is even slightly aware, they should have plenty of time to leave the area if needed imo. We have the shelter in the garage with easy access and we've still left ahead of time. No point in just sitting there waiting on our vehicles to get smashed and tossed also for no reason.

 

[Jason Freeland]

My Garage shelter is the extra tall one so I can actually stand up, took some doing to find. I use USB light bulbs and a big phone/computer charger battery to run them, works great.

 

[hunter966]

We have an in ground away from the house shelter. It’s concrete and only the top sticks out above ground about 6”-7” with a flat top and two air vents.

It is on the northwest side of our house and just to the west of where we park our vehicles. Our storms usually come in from the southwest so hopefully there won’t be any debris to get on top of it, hopefully.

Cowadle, I like the idea of keeping a high lift jack in there to jack the door open, will make that a priority this month.

 

[okcBob]

In the garage with a raised lip. Had it installed when we built the house. Opposite side of the garage from the H2O heater. Couple jacks & a hand water pump that I hope I never have to use…

 

[Gunbuffer]

Garage above ground is my preferred.

 

[Seadog]

Ours faces east. The door opens inward. It has 3 heavy gauge steel beams to secure the door.



Whatever works for you... I tend to listen to engineers who test shelters for shelter advice rather than weather forecasters. I was a weather forecaster in a former life...but I don't know s**t about shelters. So I sought out shelter experts...and they generally say all options are viable as long as they're properly built and installed.

I remember the 99 tornado. I hadn’t moved back to the state yet from my service. I do recall looking at a Survey magazine from that time that was about the tornado. What stuck in my head was some of the pictures. The fact not only were complete houses gone in neighborhoods but some of their foundations. Stripped away. I had no idea, and an F5 Nader could rip concrete slabs out the ground.

I’ve been leery of these engineers claims ever since these above grounds have come out. I see them shooting two by fours out of potato guns to tout their strength. I remember when I was young living in Nebraska, a tornado putting a complete tractor truck on top of a local bank. Like a giant playing with toys. I wonder how well some of these concrete shelters would do with large debris slamming into it. You get 100 to 200 mile an hour winds and I don’t think that 2 x 4 is comparable to a several ton vehicle.

I believe it was an F5 that went through Newcastle, Norman and Moore back in 2013. I watched that monster out my back door. It was about 5 miles off. It was so big and there was so much rain. You couldn’t really recognize it for what it really was. It really just looked like a giant downpour a mile wide It really just looked like a giant downpour. You would see the powerline flashes here and there throughout it.

When I think of these things, I always think of tornadoes as direct hits. Not some thing off in the distance. I don’t wanna go to Kansas. I also know that getting hit by a tornado is extremely rare. At least when you figure 80ish fatalities out of 330 million yearly.

Just my 2cents. I’m not overly trusting of these so-called engineers above ground shelters having seen the pictures that I mentioned from back in 1999.

 

[El Pablo]

Garage above ground is my preferred.

The only people I know that have been in an above ground in a tornado, say you should take hearing protection. The sound in a metal structure being pelted by debris was apparently rather loud. May want to at least include some for your son, if you haven’t.