Consideration a Tornado Shelter?

If you read yesterday's post on Tornado's, and you live in an area that is susceptible to tornado activity, then one thing you can consider is to have a safe room (not that terrible Jodie Foster movie). 

According to Ready.gov, when some considerations when building your safe room:

"You can build a safe room in one of several places in your home.

• Your basement
• Atop a concrete slab-on-grade foundation or garage floor.
• An interior room on the first floor.

Safe rooms built below ground level provide the greatest protection, but a safe room built in a first-floor interior room also can provide the necessary protection. Below-ground safe rooms must be designed to avoid accumulating water during the heavy rains that often accompany severe windstorms.
To protect its occupants, a safe room must be built to withstand high winds and flying debris, even if the rest of the residence is severely damaged or destroyed. Consider the following when building a safe room:

• The safe room must be adequately anchored to resist overturning and uplift.
• The walls, ceiling and door of the shelter must withstand wind pressure and resist penetration by windborne objects and falling debris.
• The connections between all parts of the safe room must be strong enough to resist the wind.
• Sections of either interior or exterior residence walls that are used as walls of the safe room must be separated from the structure of the residence so that damage to the residence will not cause damage to the safe room."

So you have decided to obtain a shelter for you and your loved ones, you have two choices: Build or Buy. Lets walk through these two options:

Build: If you are a DIY kinda person, then this is a good option for you.

1. Since you will be starting from scratch, check out FEMA-320, which is described as a "Manual with detailed information about how to build a wind-safe room to withstand tornado, hurricane and other high winds." Now my personal recommendation (for what is worth) is to use this as a reference or introduction. When building your shelter please keep the following things in mind:

• It can ruin your foundation 
• Make sure it is properly secured 
• Proper ventilation and debris guards on the doors
• Finally, have more than one way out, in case the main door becomes blocked
• Please consider your options, underground shelters are not guaranteed safety so craft your room to your house, no the other way around.

Buy: So you have looked into the building process, and you figured that it will either A) Take too long or B) Cost too much. Buying it is! Unfortunately it isn't simply plug and play.

•  Make sure the storm shelter you purchase meets FEMA guidelines and has been impacted tested at Texas Tech Wind Institute
• Do your research - you would do it for a car, so take a little time to research the company you are interesting in.
• Pay attention to the quality of metal being used.
• Is it welded on the inside as well as on the outside?
• Make sure you can operate all the latches and doors within a matter of seconds.

Ultimately the decision is up to you, hopefully this is helpful.

Good Luck and Good Hunting