Need help identifying an in ground storm shelter

[BikerHT]

Since you are building a house, you may want to consider a safe room inside the house as opposed to a shelter in the garage floor. I have seen photos of entire houses reduced to splinters and the safe room still intact.

 

[SoonerBorn]

Odds are significantly increased when your shelter occupies the same dot as your nearest source of large debris rather than being a small dot in a vast expanse where large debris could possibly fall.

Odds are in the house's favor to win when your shelter is already buried by it.

You mean like in a neighborhood where you are surrounded by houses? The only example in this thread of someone being trapped in a shelter was in fact outside of a home. Sorry but I don't buy it and don't consider it a factor. There are zero stats to back it up either way. My point is merely that it can happen regardless of where your shelter is located. All of these points and likeliness are purely anecdotal. Next, someone will mention how likely you are to drown inside your in-garage shelter because it is set flush and below ground.

 

[SoonerBorn]

It would depend what part of the tornado hit the house and size. If you couple a wide tornado that isn't a dead on hit to the structure, you could have debris slung back to the SW or whichever direction the tornado came from due to the tornado rotation. IE: NW moving tornado that clips a structure on the Northern side could push debris to the W/SW due to its cyclonic (CCW when viewed from above) rotation.

I guess what I am trying to say is that you will run the risk of debris on the shelter no mater where it is installed in relation to a structure.

This. The whole SW side cover thing being effective is a complete and total myth. A tornado spins. Winds and debris can and will come from any direction.

 

[yukonjack]

Did they survive?

They survived just fine. We told them we'd come back to them after we cleared the rest of the houses on the street we were assigned to. I don't think anyone is saying you wouldn't survive in one. You might just be stuck in it awhile if it's a large scale tornado. It's like a triage deal. These guys were okay, just buried under some debris in their shelter. They ranked pretty low on the rescue scale. I think it took about 1 1/2 hours before we got back to them. By then another neighbor that didn't get hit as bad had gotten his bobcat out and was already helping to remove the debris from their garage that had fallen in and covered up their shelter. Things started going better once the EOC was up and running but it took a while to pull all that together effectively. I think the Piedmont tornado was almost a mile wide at one point and was on the ground in the city limits for almost 20 miles as it took as SW to NE track before moving into Cashion. Small cities can get overwhelmed pretty quick.

 

[AirMech74]

Well this thread went sideways real quick.

 

[cmhbob]

Well this thread went sideways real quick.

I blame the wind.

 

[cmhbob]

Well this thread went sideways real quick.

I blame the wind.

 

[Oklahomabassin]

I didn't get a pic of the top of the sliding door, but it has a circle vent and is painted blue on the inside....I will get a better pic of it tomorrow.

I am building a house and told my contractor I wanted a shelter in the garage...I am pretty sure he told me it would be from Ground Zero, but it doesn't look anything like the ones I've seen.

Any of you guys willing to post a pic of the top of your in ground shelter so that I can maybe see which one I actually got?

Maybe call Ground Zero and forward a pic of yours to them and see if they claim it.

 

[oufan24]

Here's a pic of my Ground Zero. From the sound of yours it may be a Smart Shelter.

 

[oufan24]

Here's a pic of a Smart Shelter