Actual facts needed about storm shelters being sucked out of the ground/doors failing

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jakeman

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Why would one go to the trouble to install a concrete shelter, then finish it off with a flimsy wooden door?


My grandparents had one, with a 3 lb Folgers Coffee can filled with concrete hooked on a cable running thru a pulley on a pole for a counter weight.

If we had been trapped down there, we would have had enough home canned food for months.
 

dennishoddy

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My grandparents had one, with a 3 lb Folgers Coffee can filled with concrete hooked on a cable running thru a pulley on a pole for a counter weight.

If we had been trapped down there, we would have had enough home canned food for months.

That is exactly what my mom has in her basement shelter. I recently put the counter weight inside of some 10" PVC drain pipe, so if the cable breaks, it won't fall on somebody.
 

Glocktogo

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If it was old. I couldn't see doing that in a new install. My family's cellar is probably close to a hundred years old. It has a heavy (!!!) wooden door, with steel sheet on the outside.

My grandparent's storm celler had the old school, oak plank door that was hard as iron.

My grandparents had one, with a 3 lb Folgers Coffee can filled with concrete hooked on a cable running thru a pulley on a pole for a counter weight.

If we had been trapped down there, we would have had enough home canned food for months.

LOL, along with potatoes and onions. :)
 

jakeman

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My grandparent's storm celler had the old school, oak plank door that was hard as iron.



LOL, along with potatoes and onions. :)

How could I forget to mention the onions??? If we tried to go in the cellar to play, the onion smell ran us out after only a few minutes.

As I got older, the only time I went in there was when I was told to go get a jar of something for her while she was making dinner.

I'll be 51 on my next birthday, and I still miss my granny.

I'm sitting here thinking about it, and I have very few friends that have shelters at their homes. Back in the day, all my relatives had cellars, some even had basements. I mean, all of 'em had a cellar. Everyone one of 'em. They were prominent pieces out in the yard.

What happened? Where did we stop building fraidy holes? Why?
 

SoonerP226

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What happened? Where did we stop building fraidy holes? Why?
High water tables and high clay content in the soil in many parts of the state causes them to fail eventually. My grandparents' cellar usually had 12" of standing water, regardless of the time of year. When the house burned down in the early '80s, they filled in the old cellar and didn't build one under the new house.

There are underground mechanical rooms at OU that require working sump pumps because they'll flood otherwise--there's what has been best described as an "underground river" running under campus. One of the OU electricians told me about having to throw a breaker in one of those rooms when the pump failed; it housed the motor for the elevator's hydraulic pump, and you had to climb down a ladder to get to the "floor" of the sump (I've been in that particular room before, back when I was a student worker; IIRC, the sump is about 6' long by 10' wide and 3' deep). The motor was mounted at the level of the door, and by the time he got there the groundwater was so high that the flywheel on the motor was throwing roostertails...
 

jstaylor62

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This is the design of what I have.

Has there been any door failures? There were posts that said there was. Any pics?

http://www.tornadostormshelters.com/Shelter.htm

Dennis, this is the design that I have been considering. I have seen something similar outside the Lancer Gate at Tinker. Here are the improvements I would make:

Concrete vestibule over the entrance to help prevent the door from becoming blocked

Some substanial protection for the vent pipes

Solar panel to keep a trickle charge on batteries running a 12 volt system for led lights and fans

Some kind of emergency beacon system to notify first responders where I am

Since the goberment forced us to digital tv, what are people using for a portable tv in their shelters? If you are out of power or in a shelter, you have to listen to the weathermen talk about something that they are showing on tv and forgetting that some people are listening only on the radio.
 

criticalbass

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These stories of doors sucked off and people being sucked to their deaths probably are more rural legend based in facts from older shelters with wood doors from the 30's and 40's.
sorry no pics,

I believe your correct. This is the entire reason I posted this thread. We need facts.

Fixed it for you--I don't think the term "urban legend" even existed when I was growing up, but I sure heard a bunch of stories about cellar doors being blown off and people being sucked out. All those stories were unconfirmed. I have logged a lot of cellar time, and a good bit of it in dirt cellars. They have a very special smell that I sometimes still dream about.

This is a great thread. I don't know if anyone has mentioned the opening scene in the movie "Twister," but that is bound to have contributed to the legend.
 

turkeyrun

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I have logged a lot of cellar time, and a good bit of it in dirt cellars. They have a very special smell that I sometimes still dream about.

This is a great thread. I don't know if anyone has mentioned the opening scene in the movie "Twister," but that is bound to have contributed to the legend.

We always thought the cellar was a 'cool' place to play when we were kids. cool as in not 110 deg. plus we were out of sight.

Had forgot about that opening scene - must be some truth and not legend, that movie was a true story and it couldn't be in a movie if it wasn't the troofs.
 

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