Safety in garage floor / in ground vs above ground tornado shelters ?

[Hobbes]

I thought to myself what if a occupied garage floor shelter is under all that rubble ?



I also know you can register your shelter but amid all the confusion directly after a tornado I wonder how long it would actually take before someone started going down the list of registered shelters and be able to actually get to you ?........I think being basically buried alive scares me more than the tornado.

I share the same concern.

This is my thought:

Have one of these in the shelter:

And have a whistle on hand for a backup.

 

[Oklahomabassin]

I share the same concern.

This is my thought:

Have one of these in the shelter:

And have a whistle on hand for a backup.

And ear plugs if you are blowing that in a fraidy hole.

 

[Dale00]

To avoid being trapped and unable to communicate:

1. Register your shelter with the local fire department
2. Noise maker - air horn or hiker's whistle
3. Night time light signal - chemical glow sticks - tie to a stick and push out vent or other opening
4. Cell phone - check to see if you have a signal. If not, experiment with improvising an antenna. Texting may work even when cell phone service does not.

 

[Boehlertaught]

I have wondered a lot about the above ground saferooms. There weren't a lot of them noticable sticking out of the rubble in Moore. Even with the concerns, a Jim Giles above ground saferoom is bolted to the concrete in my garage. Fortuantly, I think, the house is built into a hill and the garage is partly under ground. The saferoom is in the corner of the garage, up against a concrete stem wall that is 4' high...and is backed by 4' of dirt on one side and an ascending hill of dirt on the other side. I truely hope this saferoom is the worst investment I ever made; meaning I hope it never gets tested.

 

[victor3ranger]

My opinion is outside underground on the south side of the house. Being that most tornados travel in a sw to ne path, if the house is destroyed the debris field will more than likely not be on top to the shelter.

 

[Perplexed]

My opinion is outside underground on the south side of the house. Being that most tornados travel in a sw to ne path, if the house is destroyed the debris field will more than likely not be on top to the shelter.

That's assuming the tornado doesn't deposit debris from a nearby structure on top of your shelter. Interestingly, a report just released indicates that the majority of debris is deposited 10 degrees to the left of the average tornado track vector: http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/BAMS-D-12-00036.1

 

[Cinaet]

IMHO, outside underground with the survival items listed above. Overall it's the best option considering all the "ifs" in the thread. Unless you're Just Stan. Good point Stan.

 

[0311]

IMHO, outside underground with the survival items listed above. Overall it's the best option considering all the "ifs" in the thread. Unless you're Just Stan. Good point Stan.

Yes, I'm in the same boat. My concrete prefab tornado shelter is planted deeply into the ground just ouside my front porch. I got two NOAH weather radios when I got the shelter put in. Have used it 7 or 8 times in the last 5 years. That was money well spent, I'll tell you.

 

[alank2]

I've got one of the in ground ones with the sloped front right off my back door. We usually try to get down there before the hail arrives if we are going to go down. I'd say be underground if you can, although an above ground safe room or vault is good if you can't be underground. I've got a couple of deep cycle batteries and we watch TV coverage of the weather until it blows through.

 

[Brandi]

If I knew there was an EF4 or EF5 coming I'd rather try and dig a hole really fast than sit in an above ground shelter. I'm kidding obviously, being disabled there's no way I could dig a hole in time so I depend on a motorcycle helmet and luck, its best not to visit during stormy weather.