Question for those in tornado prone areas.

[ChristusG]

There seem to be LOTS of tornadoes here lately in what I guess is "tornado alley."

 

My question is....does everyone in that area have a basement? And when you are in the basement, are you considered safe? Or just safer than if not in a basement? I guess what I'm asking is....can a tornado suck you out of a basement???:001_huh:

 

I live in north Florida, so excuse my ignorance on the subject LOL. We DO get tornadoes and quite a few tornado watches/warnings....but mainly it's just circulation in the clouds that never forms into an actual funnel cloud. And if it does, it's usually a weak one.

 

I could NEVER live in a tornado prone area. Seriously, I almost wet my pants when my weather radio goes off and tells me that "conditions could be right for a tornado to form." :svengo:

[KidsHappen]

I live in TN and we have been getting warnings almost daily. Not only do we not have a basement, we don't even have a single, first floor, windowless room. There is no safe place in this house should we actually be hit by a tornado. Most of the houses in my area are just the same making me wonder who the heck designed them. TX and OK houses don't have basements either. On the other hand, WI almost always do and they rarely have tornados. Obviously weather is not a major consideration in whether one has a basement. Living in a mobile home in FL is just asking for trouble though. Those things are tornado and hurricane magnets. Both will swerve out of their way to hit a trailer park.

[Mommee & Baba]

We're in TN and there are ALOT of tornadoes here....

 

We don't have a basement and all we use is either a closet, bathtub or the hallway with all doors to other rooms closed.

 

Honestly I'd LOVE to have a basement..but then I'd fear that the house could cave in on us. :( I have awful fears!

[Jennifer in MI]

We're in MI and get quite a few warnings each year. I can't imagine NOT having a basement. I'm always a little nervous when we visit my sister in GA. She doesn't have one.

 

And, ChristusG - I was driving through northern FL once through a tornado warning!!!! Scariest drive of our lives. Sky was that scary green color and there was no exit so we could get inside.

[Parrothead]

I really need to get my eyes checked. I tried to figure out what tornado porn is.

[JudoMom]

I grew up outside of Memphis, and there are no basements there (something to do with the soil conditions, I believe). My parent's master bath is in the interior of the house, so we'd huddle in the walk in closet with the most pipes when there was a warning.

[Heather in OK]

I'm in Oklahoma. No basements (or very very few) here in our area. The water table is too high.

 

So, no, we don't have one. You just go the innermost room in the house or a bathroom (usually the toilet and fixtures are left standing...so if all else fails, hug your toilet LOL!!). In our old house we had a bathroom in the very center of our house. We would sit the kids in there and had an old mattress handy to put over them, if needed. In our new house we don't really have a middle room. Which kind of sucks. We have a hallway we can use though.

 

I've never heard of anyone being sucked out of a basement. It would be possible to be trapped under the rubble of a house that was destroyed. But that could happen even if you weren't in a basement.

 

I grew up in Tornado Alley so it doesn't really phase me. I'd much rather live here then on a coast that gets hurricanes.

[Anita in NC]

We're in NC. We have a basement, plus our house is built into the side of a hill.

 

Very few people have basements and it is very hard to find a house with a basement which is one of the reasons we love our house.

 

The big tornado that hit NC last week went within a mile of our house.

 

I would feel pretty safe in our basement under the stairs. You never know though.

[BarbecueMom]

I'm in St. Louis. We have a basement and most suburban, subdivision, post-1970's built houses have basements. I think when you start looking at older houses or closer to the city center, you'll find more houses that only have crawlspaces. I was born in central Illinois, and we didn't have a basement there... however, my dad still lives there and has an 80ish year old house that does have a basement.

 

They are safer in tornadoes because the biggest concern is high wind speed and flying debris, not suction. A tornado could still kill someone hunkered down in a basement, but that would likely be from debris falling through the main floor during or after the tornado. A completely underground tornado shelter (where you walk down steps to the door of a concrete, windowless, underground room) would be the absolute safest you could be... but my luck, I'd get stuck in there and no one would think to check.

 

I have much less anxiety about severe weather than I used to. I lived in a mobile home in high school, then on the 5th floor of a dorm, and finally in 2nd floor apartments until two years ago. A house with a basement feels like a bunker!

[olan719]

I am in MS, and like others in the deep south, basements are not the norm here. I've always heard it had to do with the soil conditions and problems with flooding. I've lived here all my life, but I'm still terrified of bad weather. We had an in-ground shelter put in at our last home, and when we built our current house, we had a safe room installed during construction.

 

That said, most homes do not have these sort of shelters although they are becoming more popular. Often after a county has been affected by a tornado, governments grants become available for shelters. That money is zapped up fast here!! Most people take shelter in closets and bathrooms with no windows. It can be incredibly frightening here in the spring and fall.

[Chelli]

I grew up in Arkansas and there are no basements there either, but quite a few storm cellars (basement without the house on top). We also spent quite a bit of time in the bathroom in the bathtub with a mattress on top. I have heard of people who go to basements during a tornado and don't make it out alive because walls collapse on them.

 

Sometimes the stuff that people store in their basements become deadly. For instance when I was growing up in AR, one lady died in a tornado because she sought shelter in her basement and force of the tonado's suction caused her ping pong table to pin her against the wall and cut her in half. I think that's why most people in the really tornado prone areas have storm cellars. They are built totally underground so you don't have to worry about cave ins, etc.

[mommymilkies]

I am in Southern/Central IL. We pretty much continuously have tornado watches. Most people here do not have basements, actually. That I know, at least. Mostly because the water level is so high, it's nearly impossible to have a dry basement. Ours is wet and very old, but I only wanted it for tornado warnings! It's scary around here without one and I refused to buy a house without. Unfortunately, our basement entrance is outdoors and it's hard to open, so it takes some planning.

 

And, FWIW, tornado alley isn't the only place that gets tornadoes. http://www.isws.illinois.edu/atmos/statecli/Tornado/ilmaps.htm (Scroll down) It's always wise to be prepared. I don't care if I live in Nova Scotia or Oklahoma. There is no way I'd live somewhere without a basement or weather shelter in my home.

 

http://www.tornadopaths.org/ Cool site!

[OnTheBrink]

I live in central IL and have a basement. My house is close to 80 years old. My former home, which is 15 years old, has a basement.

 

I've never heard of anyone being sucked out of a basement. I'm not sure how that would happen! I mean, despite what the movies show you, tornadoes don't pick up houses whole and move them, they pretty much plummel through and leave them as a pile of rubble. It is possible to be trapped under rubble, I guess.

 

And, I've lived in CA most my life with earthquakes and I'd MUCH rather live in tornado area than earthquake area. You can not predict an earthquake and there is no way to really prep for them. With tornadoes, you can learn what weather conditions are prime for them and take steps to ensure you're safety. Forewarned is forearmed.

[kokotg]

We have a basement, as do all the houses in my neighborhood. I grew up in the same area (north Georgia), and I don't think any of the houses I lived in growing up had basements. I don't know what the percentages are, though. I'm super paranoid about storms, and I would be a mess every time there was a tornado warning if we didn't have a basement. I really wish our basement were finished, though, so it'd be more pleasant to be stuck down there with 3 kids and assorted pets!

[elise1mds]

I'm in the same area as Heather, and we had a storm cellar put into the back yard a few years ago. Before that, we didn't have anything. There's no inner room in our house, either, so we had to huddle in the hall closet with blankets over us, and that was too far away from the TV to hear what was going on. When I was younger, my mom just had us crawl up against an inner wall and flipped the couch over us. Mostly, though, we don't use it. We watch the TV and radar like hawks and only take cover if there's an imminent threat. DH was gone during the huge outbreak a week or so ago, and I was in charge of the kids. I stepped out on the porch and watched the wall cloud move south of the house. That is one nice thing about tornadoes... once the tornadic cycle gets started, it's easy enough to track. The most dangerous time is right when they're first firing up, because there's not really a good way to know where or when that'll be.

[Alison in KY]

Western KY here and homes with basements aren't extremely common, probably because I hear lots of complaints about leaky basements. Several years ago we spent some money on an underground tornado shelter. It's totally underground, and we've been in it 4 times this year! My worst fear, other than not liking small spaces, is that if we do get hit, our entrance/exit would be blocked, so we'd be stuck down there for awhile. Blech, I can hardly think about it without it bothering me. We've told all of our neighbors that we have one.

 

Alison

[kchara]

We live in Kansas at the moment, but we haven't lived here long, and I don't know about basements in other houses. I know in *ours,* we don't have a basement... BUT our entire ground floor is made of cinder block. Not the best, but it's safer than a regular house, I figure. We've only had 1 warning since I've been here, but we have closet under the stairs, and a laundry/bathroom in the kitchen, and we'll go in there if I do here the sirens going off. (Do they have sirens in Kansas?? Not even really sure..)

 

I grew up in Indiana... TONS of tornadoes there, too. Tons of basements, too. I told DH that when we build (someday...), I want a basement with an emergency "area" with things like water, extra clothes/diapers/MREs, a weather radio, flashlights, things like that.

[mcconnellboys]

Large, very strong tornadoes *could* suck the contents out of a basement, but it's not all that common. We do happen to have a basement where we live now, but in some places they are just not practical (south Louisiana, for instance). Even Baton Rouge has had some tornado warnings this year. I don't recall that ever occurring while we lived down there. I've read that winds in general are picking up worldwide at this time, for whatever reason.

[Mrs Mungo]

I'm in Oklahoma. No basements (or very very few) here in our area. The water table is too high.

 

The other problem in much of Oklahoma is that the bedrock is too high. They would have to dynamite to put in basements in many areas.

[Tammyla]

We live where basements are the norm, and I've never heard of anyone being sucked out of one...But who knows??? When we moved here, I wouldn't even look at homes without a basement; they save so many lives.

[Mrs Mungo]

A lot of newer homes in Oklahoma do have safe rooms like these:

http://www.smartsafeshelters.com/?q=shelters

 

http://familysafeshelters.com/the-shelter/

 

One of the schools leveled in the May '99 tornado has "safe rooms" as hallways.

[LidiyaDawn]

I really need to get my eyes checked. I tried to figure out what tornado porn is.

 

:laugh:

 

I read the title correctly, but expected the question to be something along the lines of: Why in the world do you keep living there?! :p

[Quiver0f10]

We are in NW Arkansas and we don't have a basement. Our safe area is the main bathroom which is interior but it has a sky light. I don't think it's really safe but it atleast keeps us all together and gives the kids a sense of protection. When we buy or build I want a safe room or a storm shelter.

Edited April 26, 2011 by Quiver0f10

[Slartibartfast]

I am from Oklahoma where there are not typically basements.

 

You are generally safe in a basement.

 

You are not always safe in the center of your home. During the 1999 tornado the meterologists were very specific. "You must be underground or you must get out of the way of this storm" but it was an F5

 

My father knows people who were in a storm shelter in their home and were trapped by rubble (their house was obliterated) but people knew they were there and got them out

Edited April 26, 2011 by Sis

[Slartibartfast]

Do they have sirens in Kansas?? Not even really sure

 

 

Yes, Kansas has sirens, it is a part of tornado alley

[Twilight Woods]

I live in IL. We do not have a basement. The last BAD tornado that hit here was the Plainfield Tornado in 1990. We still get bad storms, micro-bursts and funnels.

 

We have a storage area under our stairs or a bathroom we use for shelter. They have done studies and sometimes basements are no safer especially when the house collapses.

 

I want one of those storm shelters that you can have built.

[Jackie in AR]

We don't have a basement, and don't know many people who do. I've only lived in Texas and Arkansas, so tornado watches and warnings have always been a part of my life.

 

My sister and her family survived a tornado which destroyed their home about 3 years ago because they went to their neighbor's basement. The tornado took the neighbor's home, too, but everyone who had taken cover in the neighbor's basement bathroom was safe. The storm took part of the flooring above the basement ceiling, but nothing was sucked out of the basement itself.

[MeaganS]

I'm in Arkansas, but I've lived in Tennessee, Texas, and Oklahoma as well. Our Tennessee house had no basement. It was pretty cheaply made too, so I'm suspecting it would take less than a tornado to knock it down. Our Oklahoma house did have a basement and we often had our neighbors over when there was a tornado warning. In Texas we had no basement, and one time we had grapefruit-size hail that went through the roof, through the attic, and landed on the bed. If there were tornadoes in that house we went into the pantry in the kitchen. Here in Arkansas we have no basement and spend our tornado warnings in a closet under the stairs on the main floor. I'm pretty sure it's rare to have a basement here because the ground is stone and it would flood as well. Oh, and when I was in high school, the gym was the tornado shelter. It was mostly underground, but the whole school would have to run across the parking lot to get there. It seemed sort of odd to me, but we never needed to use it.

 

We've had so many tornado warnings lately, that the closet is completely cleared out and we have put a fan and extension cord (for powering the computer) into it, as well as lots of blankets and pillows and our 72 hour kits. I have no idea how safe we'd be in the closet, but the house is 70 years old and pretty sturdy, so hopefully we'd be fine.

Edited April 26, 2011 by MeaganS

[Hannah C.]

As far as I know, very very few of the houses in the DFW area have basements. I've never been in one. We're taught to go the first floor and to the most central part of the house/building.

[Scarlett]

I really need to get my eyes checked. I tried to figure out what tornado porn is.

 

 

:smilielol5:

[Scarlett]

:laugh:

 

I read the title correctly, but expected the question to be something along the lines of: Why in the world do you keep living there?! :p

 

 

Ha ha. :glare:

 

:D

[Scarlett]

In AR. Been here my entire life, almost. Never had a basement. Many many newer homes have a safe room. It is really a very easy thing to build into a new home.

 

My hometown was nearly ripped off the map by a tornado 2 years ago. I'm still not that afraid though. During bad weather I just watch the sky and the news periodically--can't watch it continuously because the weather men will TERRIFY you--and occassioally we gather together in the hallway just to be safe and sure.

 

Just part of life in AR.

[ChristusG]

I really need to get my eyes checked. I tried to figure out what tornado porn is.

 

LOL!!! Yeah, that would be....interesting. :lol:

 

I didn't realize that so many people in tornado prone areas did not have basements or storm shelters!

 

Like I said, I live in Florida and we definitely do not have basements. When our weather radio goes off, we go to an interior hallway. We also have an interior bathroom, but it is tiny and it also has a skylight. The hallway does have a short hallway (with no door) that goes into the living room....but I figure it's better than nothing.

[MelAR05]

Just part of life in AR.

:iagree:

 

From Arkansas as well. Of course, still have to get thru today but I have not ever seen a tornado nor know of someone personally who has been in one and I am in my forties. Not always but the casualties from tornadoes are usually people who live in mobile homes. It is amazing how many people survive a tornado by just going to the interior of their house. There are close calls and times in the hallway every year but that is just life here. I would feel safer with a safe room though. :001_smile:

 

It's funny because I think I could never live in a place where there are earthquakes all the time. Though people that have experience with them would probably say they are no big deal.

 

Melissa

[Scarlett]

:iagree:

 

From Arkansas as well. Of course, still have to get thru today but I have not ever seen a tornado nor know of someone personally who has been in one and I am in my forties.

 

That was me until 1994...one hit my hometown and destroyed a very old beautiful park. Then in 1996 one hit the city I live in now.....my place of employment at the time suffered major damage and many many people I knew/know personally had their homes destroyed. 3 people died in that. All three lived in very old and structurally unsound homes. Hundreds survived in hallways and bathrooms and many more survived even though they were asleep when it hit! One guy we knew woke up to the sky overhead!

 

Then worse than that was the 2009 tornado that hit my hometown. Horrible. 3 people died then too.

 

USUALLY when there is a death it is an old run down house or a moble home. Lots of people survive tornados even when the house is destroyed.

[VA6336]

It has amazed me that with all the damage caused by these storms over the last month, that so few lives have been lost. Every life counts, I know, but I'm still surprised by it. We've spent a lot of time in an interior walk-in closet lately. It's one place we all fit that has no glass!

[texasmama]

In Texas here, and it is definitely tornado alley. There are no basements in Texas. (Well, I'm sure there are a few but it is not the norm.) If we feared a tornado, we would go into a bathroom which is in the inner part of our house and cover with a mattress in the bathtub. Not sure how all of us would fit into the bathtub, but that is another issue.

[gaillardia]

I really need to get my eyes checked. I tried to figure out what tornado porn is.

:lol:

I live in Texas. We've had tornado warnings, watches, sheer force winds, no basement. There are a few closets with turning doorknobs, a half bath in an interior hallway. I think we think we know where we will go when we feel alarmed.

Ds lives in an older home in TX with a basement. Builder's wife apparently wasn't going to live in it unless it had a basement.

I'm not thrilled about living here without a storm shelter or basement.

Yesterday there were three tornadoes within a 90 minute drive of our home.:glare:

But we are also within an hour of an enormous wildfire.:glare:

[Imprimis]

I'm tornado-phobic. Really. Even have recurring nightmares about them and I'm not even in tornado alley. Yet...

 

The question I have though, is, why are many (or maybe most?) homes in tornado-prone areas wood frame? Is there a reason CBS (concrete block) homes aren't or can't be built in certain areas? I'm in a hurricane prone location, and most new construction is CBS and built to stringent codes.

 

We have property in NW Arkansas--dh wants to move there---and while up there we visited a couple of builders; the home models we looked at were all wood frame with a lot of engineered wood. Is this common? More importantly, how structurally sound is this type of construction?

[Scarlett]

I'm tornado-phobic. Really. Even have recurring nightmares about them and I'm not even in tornado alley. Yet...

 

The question I have though, is, why are many (or maybe most?) homes in tornado-prone areas wood frame? Is there a reason CBS (concrete block) homes aren't or can't be built in certain areas? I'm in a hurricane prone location, and most new construction is CBS and built to stringent codes.

 

We have property in NW Arkansas--dh wants to move there---and while up there we visited a couple of builders; the home models we looked at were all wood frame with a lot of engineered wood. Is this common? More importantly, how structurally sound is this type of construction?

 

Color me ignorant.....but what else do you frame houses with?

[jewellsmommy]

I am in Southern/Central IL. We pretty much continuously have tornado watches. Most people here do not have basements, actually. That I know, at least. Mostly because the water level is so high, it's nearly impossible to have a dry basement. Ours is wet and very old, but I only wanted it for tornado warnings! It's scary around here without one and I refused to buy a house without. Unfortunately, our basement entrance is outdoors and it's hard to open, so it takes some planning.

 

And, FWIW, tornado alley isn't the only place that gets tornadoes. http://www.isws.illinois.edu/atmos/statecli/Tornado/ilmaps.htm (Scroll down) It's always wise to be prepared. I don't care if I live in Nova Scotia or Oklahoma. There is no way I'd live somewhere without a basement or weather shelter in my home.

 

http://www.tornadopaths.org/ Cool site!

 

 

We don't have a basement. I wish we did. Houses around here just aren't built with them. The same as you mentioned, the water table, on the coast, prevents it mostly. Va has been seeing more tornado warnings lately.

[Mrs Mungo]

Hurricanes and tornadoes are totally different as far as wind speed. Tornadoes tend to have much higher wind speed. Hurricanes typically cause damage because you get sustained winds. Hurricanes are usually in the 75-155 mph range. A big tornado (level 4) has twice the wind speed of a big (level 4) hurricane. The cinder blocks wouldn't help, they would just become heavier projectiles.

[Mrs Mungo]

Color me ignorant.....but what else do you frame houses with?

 

Our house in Germany was cinder block construction. Our house in Hawaii had metal framing (hurricane and termite problems).

[Imprimis]

Color me ignorant.....but what else do you frame houses with?

 

Ours is concrete block, otherwise known as CBS construction.

[Scarlett]

Ours is concrete block, otherwise known as CBS construction.

 

Ah.....ok. No, here in AR it is wood frame. But that doesn't mean people die in tornados. And I'm not sure concrete blocks can hold up to a tornado any better...people don't often die because a house is wood framed...it is usually because it is OLD....and therefore weak. Current construction allows for survival usually even if the house is ripped off the pad. (I know because I've seen plenty of it)

[MrsBasil]

I grew up in Kansas, in a suburb of Kansas City. Most houses had either a basement or a crawl space. We had a crawl space.

 

I don't live in tornado alley anymore, but we still get a few warnings here and there was a big tornado very near here about 3 years ago. I'm thankful to have a basement.

[prairiewindmomma]

Some people here are building steel frame houses and using hardiboard (concrete) from exterior siding & roofing (to prevent hail damage).

 

Nearly everyone here has a basement. Those that have houses on slab foundations generally have some sort of interior room that it windowless that they can go into. More and more people are putting in shelter rooms into their new construction.

[Dobela]

I'm tornado-phobic. Really. Even have recurring nightmares about them and I'm not even in tornado alley. Yet...

 

The question I have though, is, why are many (or maybe most?) homes in tornado-prone areas wood frame? Is there a reason CBS (concrete block) homes aren't or can't be built in certain areas? I'm in a hurricane prone location, and most new construction is CBS and built to stringent codes.

 

We have property in NW Arkansas--dh wants to move there---and while up there we visited a couple of builders; the home models we looked at were all wood frame with a lot of engineered wood. Is this common? More importantly, how structurally sound is this type of construction?

NW Arkansas doesn't seem to have as many tornadoes as the rest of the state, usually. Tornados are rarer in mountains than the flatter part of the state. If you look at a road map of Arkansas, most tornados will follow I-30 from Texarkana to Jonesboro. Or they come from Oklahoma thru Ft Smith and follow I-40 across to Memphis. Those are the flatter areas of the state.

 

As far as construction, a lot has to do with changing codes. Housing codes don't require shelters. There are not as many storm shelters as there were when I was a kid. Storms come only a couple of key times a year and the rest of the time the shelters are snake heaven. Most of the older ranch style homes are ok as they usually have interior closets and at least one windowless bathroom. Too many new contrustions with the totally open concept don't have hallways or interior anything. However, when we were looking for a home last year, occassionally we would find a house that had a cement block reinforced closet or bathroom meant for storms.

 

When straight line winds are over 70 miles an hour, and 125+ as they were last night, even concrete block isn't guaranteed safe. I have seen building made of those be left behind as a pile of scattered rubble. A lot of damage in tornados is not caused by direct hits of the tornados. It is caused by the debris that the tornado carries - the trees, large items, even cars that it picks up in the wind. Your house may hold up to the wind, but not to the debris. It is like giant swirling buckshot.

[Imprimis]

NW Arkansas doesn't seem to have as many tornadoes as the rest of the state, usually. Tornados are rarer in mountains than the flatter part of the state. If you look at a road map of Arkansas, most tornados will follow I-30 from Texarkana to Jonesboro. Or they come from Oklahoma thru Ft Smith and follow I-40 across to Memphis. Those are the flatter areas of the state.

 

As far as construction, a lot has to do with changing codes. Housing codes don't require shelters. There are not as many storm shelters as there were when I was a kid. Storms come only a couple of key times a year and the rest of the time the shelters are snake heaven. Most of the older ranch style homes are ok as they usually have interior closets and at least one windowless bathroom. Too many new contrustions with the totally open concept don't have hallways or interior anything. However, when we were looking for a home last year, occassionally we would find a house that had a cement block reinforced closet or bathroom meant for storms.

 

 

 

Thank you---good to hear NW Arkansas isn't as tornado-prone.

 

We noticed all the open floor plans, too. Another reason I wasn't crazy about the new construction up there.

[TravelingChris]

We are moving to Huntsville AL in the next few months and it is a tornado prone area. I had already decided I wanted a basement or partial basement like I have here (walk out basement) simply because I like sending teens downstairs with their friends and not stay on the same level with me or even worse, above me like some bonus rooms are. But after all the tornadoes reported in the news these last two weeks, I have now become insistent we are either buying a house with a basement or installing a safe room.