For the storm cellarless
Cut a section of sturdy plywood that fits over the edge of the bathtub. drill holes in it and secure a handle or rope to hold onto. This is easy and would be better than a blanket. Plus easy to stash near the wall. Downside is its only good for 1 or 2 people.
I'm not sure. While the plywood would offer better protection from debris, I'd be surprised if you could hold it down if the walls or ceiling in your bathroom gave out. More likely to drag you out with it if you have a good grip, I would guess...
If you had a way to really secure it to the tub you might have something...
I once toured the area devastated by the Palm Sunday tornado (1965)...if you had seen that, you would not even consider staying in a home with no basement and with a t. coming at you. If the home collapses, the ply might keep some debris off you. In a direct hit, you, the house and the plywood will likely take a long trip. Tornadoes do freaky things - deliver your belongings many miles away, ram 2x4's through tree trunks, pull children out of their parent's arms, etc.
Buy a weather radio and have a designated shelter to go to in case of t.
Only hottubs or amazingly big bathtubs can hold two people. Even the bathtub in my 1930 luxury apartment building would not have been able to hold two people and lower the plywood to the top of the tub.
It's hard enough for me to tuck my 5'8" body totally into a tub.
Plus what Larry and Norminn said.
Although the news is often talking about people who protect themselves in the bathtub. I think they are just lucky,. and they're near the wall on two or three sides. Just like a door way is safer than the middle of the room.
The plywood, and tub for that matter, are protection from flying debris. There isn't much, other than dumb luck, that will save you from a direct hit.
Yeah, no way out. ;-)
AIUI, the biggest problem in the Tuscaloosa disaster this year was that several warning sirens had been taken out by a storm earlier in the day and it hit just about the evening rush hour.
" snipped-for-privacy@att.bizzzzzzzzzzzz" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
use those suction cup handles like for moving sheets of glass. HF sells them for $5 on sale. Put a couple in the tub,and HANG ON!
BTW,the usual advice for using the tub as storm shelter is to drag your mattress in there to put over the top.... if you can fit a mattress in your bathroom!
Not Me. Underground!
We live 60 miles from Joplin and our three regional TV stations are from the Joplin area. I believe present death toll is 156. We hear from all stations that a lot of the folks, who didn't have underground shelter, did everything right. They got into interior rooms, bathrooms, closets, bathtubs, etc. Many of these people did not have a chance with the magnitude of that tornado. Bathtub and plywood would have been little protection. One of KOAM TV's news anchors went to his small utility room and squeezed himself between the washer and a closet wall. He survived but is still under medical care.
RonB
Conditions all that day and, I think, for several days afterward, were very threatening. Weather radios might give a little more time; they do where I live. Have seen the aftermath of several tornados, so I don't take watches or warnings lightly. My daughter was on the road recently when a warning came out....advised everyone on the road between mileposts x and y to leave their vehicle and get in a ditch! She was only a mile beyond that designated area, with her son home alone, so she beat it for home. Got pounded by hail on the way home, but made it okay. There were 3 or 4 tornadoes in the area that day.
Even without warnings or sirens, one can often tell when conditions are threatening...when we had no basement, we just headed for friend's home. Vice versa now :o)
One hit about 15 miles from here (Lake Martin) about 8:00 that night. I keep meaning to buy a SAME weather radio but I haven't like the ones I've seen, for various reasons.
We have no basement. They're extremely rare here. Only one house of all we looked at had a basement and it was on the side of a cliff, with only a retaining wall keeping it out of the creek 40' below. No thanks.
A number of years ago the warning system sucked. The tornado, if there even was one, could be three counties over. Very recently, they've vastly improved the system such that the warnings can be isolated very narrowly, based on the Doppler radar returns. The first year we were down here ('08) we had sirens go off every couple of nights for a while; likely two dozen times that spring. Last year, none. This year, once, the night of the Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Huntsville, and Lake Martin (the one close to us) tornadoes. Like I said, things changed, very recently. If they go off now, I'm not farting around!
If I was building a house in "tornado alley" without a basement I would really consider a "shelter room". There are supposed to be plans at the homeland security site.
For existing houses the recommendation is digging a small pit and finishing it, with lid, in the garage floor (preferably attached).
Bathrooms are small rooms (typically) with a tub that is one of the least likely to move objects in the house. I agree that luck is a big part, particularly something like Joplin.
I have more than one weather radio with SAME (alert by county) - highly recommended.
The same day as the Joplin tornado the weather radio went off with a "tornado warning". Average warning is 13 minutes. About 3 minutes later a tornado came through (Minneapolis). Knocked down all the boulevard trees on this block (some over 24") and a lot of the front yard trees. Remarkably little damage right here to houses. Further north much bigger damage (F1).
If I lived there, my bedrooms would be in the basement.
internaughtfull wrote the following:
Yeah, that's what you need, a sail!
You would drown in your sleep. ;-)
I think our water table is far too high for that. ...at least on this street.
Our tub has a huge glass window over it. We hang out in a closet in the center of the house, with the hallway closed off at each entrance. Again, the idea is to get out of the way of flying debris. A direct hit is Oz time.
I gotta get one. I haven't liked any I've seen, for various reasons. The last couple of times I was in Frys, they had none. No one carries them around here. ...at least I haven't found them.
A tornado, or straight-line winds? That's pretty narrow for a tornado, though anything is possible.
Probabaly not legal without some way to get out from the room other than the door. I am sure there are ways around this that would give some security incase of the tornado.
Someone mentioned it flooding. There may be a high water table that would prevent a basement. My real comment was ment to be that I would have a place in the house to sleep that would be tornado resistant.
Sorta like this?
The code here (IBC/IRC?) requires 2 means of egress form habitable rooms (like bedrooms). One can be a window, but there are requirements for how high the window is off the floor and the openable area. A window can be cut into a basement wall with an egress pit on the outside. (Seems like a nice place to break in. We used a window sized door instead.)
A basement is safer than above. But it is not guaranteed. You can have the demolished house piled in the basement. Advice is to be in the basement but in a place like under a workbench or with additional protection. IMHO the first thing to do is get a weather radio with SAME (not just a weather radio).
Probably not practical to make a basement bedroom a "saferoom".
For existing no basement high water table the option is probably a "saferoom", but it is more expense and hassle then adding when the house is built. I sure would want a basement or something in "tornado alley".
Thanks for digging up the links.
-- bud--
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