Re: Wilma

[Pierre Levesque, AIA]

'tis 'bout time you move outta there... like Ohio and tornado country :-)

Well, we just got power about 30 mins ago. > It went out about 8:30am on Mon. > In some ways Wilma was worse than Charlie. > We had a couple soffit panels ripped loose, I fixed them yesterday. > And the 80' width of the rear of our 6' estate fence is bowed out. > I will fix that today. > > We were a little better prepared this time, had all the batteries charged, > ate most of the food in the fridge, had plenty of water and ice. > The climate made the diff this time around. > During Charley it was unbelievably hot the whole time, had to consume > gallons of water everyday. > During Wilma it was about 75 during the day and dropped to the high 50's > at night. > Told my wife just last night, other than concerns over my work, I'm not > too bothered that the power is out. > It does get boring though when you have no juice. > > Now, all is well here. >

[P Fritz]

Don......you are showing your age......they are called basements now.

message

[jojo]

central texas plenty of tornadoes, no basements solutions...interior tornado rooms

[P Fritz]

yeah, but Don is talking of moving to Indy / Ohio.....where basements are pretty standard.....although more and more peopel are looking for "walk out" ones.

[P Fritz]

But think about it.......storm starts to blow, your in the house and NOW you want to make the mad dash away from the house. It would make more sense to have a solid structure in the basement (maybe with its own roof) if you are that concerned........but I have lived in the midwest for over 30 years and have never evcen seen a twister. It is all a matter of $$$ / risk

[Notan]

Ah, the 60s.

When my folks built their home, my father had a shelter built into the foundation, with reinforced concrete.

Kinda cool, but, fortunately, we never used it.

Notan

[Kris Krieger]

"Don" wrote in news:_KM7f.1380$ [e-mail]:

Or a decommissioned missile silo. I saw that on teevee - two people bought one, fixed it up and live in it.

[Notan]

Did they have it delivered?

Notan

[Kris Krieger]

"Don" wrote in news:dDO7f.481$ [e-mail]:

A.K.A. storm cellar. Or survival bunker

Yup. Indoor "tornado room" is good but best is to be below ground so as to avoid debris being thrown around at 100+ mph.

New? Oh where's the fun in that =:-o

Right. IMO, always a really good idea. Makes a good "provate space" ;) And, if nothing else, you can go down there and blast the stereo and party to your heart's content

You also can buy units that come pretty much stocked with things like air filter, heater, power supply, and so on, tho' I have no recollection of price ranges. They're reinforced steel blunt-edged cylinders, I think originally mfg.d to be truck-mounted gas/chemical transport containers (so they're also leakproof).

[jojo]

gotcha

[3D Peruna]

When I did my in-law's house in Missouri, we added a small "tornado" room for relatively little cost in the basement. It's concrete 6 sides with appropriate doors. Prolly much less costly and far more convenient than something outside and separate.

[Kris Krieger]

"Don" wrote in news:mYT7f.1625$ [e-mail]:

Maybe by 6 sides he meant, including floor and ceiling...?

I'm with you there, tho' from what I've seen (such as it is), the trend seems to have been for developments to have the houses on slabs. No doubt it's cheaper (for the builder that is) than putting in a basement. Personally, I'd have thought that the climate extremes of the continental climate type (i.e. at the continent's interior, unmitigated by any large body of water) would lead to as awful lot of buckling, which is one of the things I don't like about slab construction - it's not like most places have the slabs built on stable'stabilized pillars.

So, an above-ground "shelter room" is all that most people can probably get, since I'm also sure the yards in the majority recent developments (i.e. regardless of geographical area) are too tiny to hold an actual underground shelter.

[Kris Krieger]

"Don" wrote in news:JZT7f.1627$ [e-mail]:

Yup. Very interesting idea. The lack of windows was a bit disturbing, but it all depends upon one's psychology, and one's decorating skills . OTOH, when they go outside, it's all sky and grassland - imagine, no people for miles around, no poop from the neighbor's pets, or strewn junk form the neighbors' kids, or peopel always banging on your door trying to seel you junk or convert you or whatever, no damn lawnmower or leafblower racket every day of the week, no nosy nellies trying to pry into your business or tell you how to live... ...just about heaven in that regard

[Adam Weiss]

Glad to hear you came through it fine.

Good to hear the house suffered only cosmetic damage.

Sorry to hear you were bored. Being an easterner by birth, and having spent 6 days without power during a nor-easter in 1997, I can say that it doesn't have to be boring.

My recipe:

Once the storm's passed through and you don't need to stay sober for safety, gather a flashlight with batteries, a bottle of cheap, strong liquor a big book or a collection of National Geographics and a newspaper or magazine or two - even old ones are OK. You can sustain interest for days.

[Kris Krieger]

"Don" wrote in news:VeW7f.1675$ [e-mail]:

[ snip ]

I think these are supposed to be tornado shelters - I've no idea whether they could stand a direct hit; I think they're mainly supposed to be a buffer between you and tornado-flung missiles.

But I keep wondering whether a semi-underground "turtle shell" (domed reinforced concrete) would be able to withstand a hit by a tornado.

Flooding would be a concern but it seems like it'd also lessen the need for heating and A/C.

Because of flood concerns, I don't think being semi-underground would work in hurricane-prone areas - but I dunno.

[Kris Krieger]

"Don" wrote in news:zgW7f.1677$ [e-mail]:

Well, actually, yeah...

Too true!

OTOH, as the whole saying goes, "I think, therefore I am; I dream, therefore I become". So what the hell, dream a little ;)