Tornado Shelters

[renosteinke]

Yup, it's that time of year- the season when the sky spins, little boys say 'cool,' and little girls go looking for Toto. Tornado season. Again.

Has anyone built a tornado shelter? I draw your attention to this plan / specification put out by our ever-helpful Federal government:
http://www.fema.gov/pdf/plan/prevent/saferoom/320_ag-06plan.pdf

Please pay particular attention to the note in the upper-right corner regarding grounding of the sheet metal in the walls.

Since this plan is for a room you build inside your home - and not for a freestanding structure - what is the purpose of specifying a ground rod? I believe this plan illustrates a lot of the confusion that exists regarding 'grounding.'

Now that we've all had a good giggle, I invite all to google such shelters. I note there are many places that will sell you a big concrete box to set in your yard. Bringing power, water, and sewer to these things has got to be an interesting challenge. For that matter- where does the sump pump go? You might as well just set a length of sewer pipe in the ground.

 

[iwire]

Since this plan is for a room you build inside your home - and not for a freestanding structure - what is the purpose of specifying a ground rod?

Maybe the thought is that once the storm comes by and blows the house away this shelter could be outside exposed to lightning.


Of course at that point the lightning rod might be more useful as an anchor point than as an electrode.

 

[Builder]

I built one years ago, a "root cellar/storm cellar.

we have only used it a few times for storm protection, but it sure is nice to have, a few pictures of it, and some of the construction of it. (actually the day I hauled the tank home a tornado passed just north of the house as I pulled into the yard that day),

built the block wall, and had rebar in the footer that come up through the wall, filled the blocks, and then put a steel plate on the top of the wall, with holes for the rebar to come through, welded the rebar to the plate, then pulled the the tank halves, I had cut the rotted bottom off of, welded the entire tank back together and to the plate on the wall, and added the stair well and that is all rebar reinforced and filled with a solid concrete cap, in the back of the tank is a escape hole covered by a plate, with an entrenching tool to dig a way out, it is covered by about 12 " of soil on the very top, since the picture I have added some ventilation vents one on the front and one on the rear,

 

[kwired]

Around here most storm shelters are all concrete - usually under the front porch slab.

Midwestern people know what tornados can do. Why mess around with a plywood and tin structure? The whole unit although stronger than the rest of the house is still subject to being picked up and moved hundreds of feet or more. Heavy vehicles are thrown around like toys in a kids sand box. You basically need a bomb shelter. You also have to go in it during the storm, one thing that is not always done, or the shelter is full of storage and there is no room for people to take shelter.