Tonight after viewing the photos that are appearing on the internet of all the damage from the deadly tornadoes which impacted so many lives across the U.S. on March 1st and 2nd, I was reminded of a recent conversation with my parents. They had been looking at a tornado safe room and had been one of the first 100 to apply for a FEMA safe room grant in their area. It had been a while since they applied and they had received no word on the status of their application, but, were very eager to begin construction.
The grant would help them build a room which would be about the size of a walk in closet where they could wait out any storm in complete safety. The safe room they were looking at having constructed would be built out of heavy welded reinforced thick steel. This type of safe room would be anchored with long steel rods inside their garage. I was informed that the model would have a door that swings inward so that occupants cannot be trapped into by any type of debris. The safe room would have a small bench inside which would offer storage underneath for important papers.
After talking about the safe room for a while, I suddenly remembered my parent’s stories about the 45 tornadoes that ripped across Alabama in 1973. My parents at that time had a two story house with a basement. One corner of the basement was completely underground and that is where they sit for hours hoping everything would be alright. At one point when the radio was talking about a tornado that had been spotted just a few miles down the road, a knock came at the door. Although scared, my mother hurried upstairs to see who was knocking and found a young couple who were driving by from out of state. They had found themselves stuck in a horrifying predicament as they knew that the tornado was rapidly approaching and they thought that my parents house looked liked it might have a basement. With that thought in mind, they decided to knock on a stranger’s door and ask for shelter. Of course, my mother welcomed the young couple down into the basement.
While everyone sit waiting and praying that the storms would pass and spare them, they heard a loud sound which resembled a freight train going by. My father looked out the small window in the basement and saw their next door neighbor’s barn being destroyed and the neighbor’s wishing well being picked up and thrown into the side of their house. Then a strange silence came only to be followed by another burst of devastating sounds of trees falling.
After a very long night, the storms finally ended and they were able to leave the basement to begin checking on the neighbors. Fortunately, no one that my parents knew was seriously injured and none of the neighbors’ homes were completely destroyed. There was a lot of damage and it took a while to clean up the debris, but, they realized that next time they might not be so lucky. With that in mind, my parents decided to get someone to dig out a hole and they would build a storm shelter. It was built out of concrete blocks, had a pipe that ran through the ceiling to use as a window, and the door did not swing inward.
That early shelter was very primitive. My parents described it as very dark and damp. During heavy rain, water would slip into the shelter under the door. They had wooden benches to sit upon and spent many nights on them during tornado season over the years. It was a cold place to wait out a storm, but it was much better than nothing.
After listening to their stories, I knew that my parents who are much older now needed a more modern place to go during bad weather. A safe room sounded ideal because they do not leak and they can be climate controlled. Tornado safe rooms can be wired for electricity and can be handicap accessible which is a wonderful feature. They are available in several sizes for home use and even larger sizes for a community shelter.
Knowing the importance and need for a safe room, I did some research and found that in order to find funding to build a safe room, check on the status of a grant, or for more detailed info on safe rooms in general one should go to: http://www.fema.gov/plan/prevent/saferoom/faq.shtm#Q06. The site is very helpful and provides a great deal of valuable information so please take the time to look and insure your safety.
