Storm Shelters

[Wishbone]

We got our shelter installed Friday. We went with an above ground safe room from Ground Zero. Put is in the back of the garage and I can still get all 3 cars in. It's rated to survive an F20 tornado if the scale went up that high.

Here is Ground Zero's that survived Moore's F5 last year...

[s00nr1]

We decided to go with an in-ground (garage) unit from GFS. Installation set for July 7.

[Bunty]

On the lower picture I don't see a door. Did the tornado blow it off? I would no longer feel safe in there, if the door blew away during a tornado.

[ylouder]

I have the same shelter installed about a month ago. Very happy with it.

We also had an above ground one at our old house, I don't do the small I'm ground ones. Way to many variables with being trapped in there, having it flood, and rusting out over time.

[ylouder]

Bunty. The door swings inward that's why you don't see it. That way if stuff Is piled infront of it you can still get out.

[btlsooner]

wow, how crazy! makes me feel a lot better that my wife and I got a shelter put in awhile back. It's great piece of mind. If any of you guys are looking around for one, we got ours from F5 Storm Shelters They did a really great job.

[Plutonic Panda]

OKC Grant May Allow Some Residents To Get A Free Storm Shelter - News9.com - Oklahoma City, OK - News, Weather, Video and Sports |

[Filthy]

I noticed that a few of these start up companies, that tried to jump in and take advantage of the 2013 tornado shelter craze, have gone out of business. Seemed like the mass hysteria died down a bit, when we had an almost "tornado free" spring this year.

[PennyQuilts]

Categorizing people responding to what is actually happening in their communities as engaging in hysteria strikes me as an unwarranted and mean spirited slap. The lack of standard basements and tornado shelters here in tornado alley has struck most of the country as insane for quite some time.

But beyond that, of course a bunch of companies jumped in when they saw an opportunity. And of course demand died down after not only a slow year but because so many people who had been putting it off went ahead and made the jump when supply and demand drove down the cost and made it more cost effective. Good for them. News flash - storm shelters aren 't the type of thing you buy every year which is why companies typically strike when the iron is hot. Plenty of storm shelter companies are still doing well, especially if they are a branch of a septic tank business or have ties to new construction.

In my established neighborhood we've had two new houses built since 2010. Both put in storm shelters - one in 2010 and the other this past year after he lost not one, but two houses in the big tornados that tore through Moore in 1999 and the last big one. I personally wouldn't call the man hysterical after having that experience. Five people had underground shelters installed in existing homes prior to the "hysteria." Two other people, myself included, installed above ground shelters and had simply been waiting for a good option that would work since we both have big dogs. Two others put in below ground shelters in 2013 - one when his mother-in-law died and they sold her house with the storm shelter they'd previously used. The other got one just because he got shook up. It got pretty scary around here when the El Reno storm was swinging close. At this point, only six people don't have shelters but I know two of them have been talking about getting one for several years and just haven't gotten around to it. Three other people have basements.

Not sure I want to be in the same neighborhood as the guy who has had two houses blown away - he might be a tornado magnet.

[Filthy]

Categorizing people responding to what is actually happening in their communities as engaging in hysteria strikes me as an unwarranted and mean spirited slap. The lack of standard basements and tornado shelters here in tornado alley has struck most of the country as insane for quite some time.

But beyond that, of course a bunch of companies jumped in when they saw an opportunity. And of course demand died down after not only a slow year but because so many people who had been putting it off went ahead and made the jump when supply and demand drove down the cost and made it more cost effective. Good for them. News flash - storm shelters aren 't the type of thing you buy every year which is why companies typically strike when the iron is hot. Plenty of storm shelter companies are still doing well, especially if they are a branch of a septic tank business or have ties to new construction.

In my established neighborhood we've had two new houses built since 2010. Both put in storm shelters - one in 2010 and the other this past year after he lost not one, but two houses in the big tornados that tore through Moore in 1999 and the last big one. I personally wouldn't call the man hysterical after having that experience. Five people had underground shelters installed in existing homes prior to the "hysteria." Two other people, myself included, installed above ground shelters and had simply been waiting for a good option that would work since we both have big dogs. Two others put in below ground shelters in 2013 - one when his mother-in-law died and they sold her house with the storm shelter they'd previously used. The other got one just because he got shook up. It got pretty scary around here when the El Reno storm was swinging close. At this point, only six people don't have shelters but I know two of them have been talking about getting one for several years and just haven't gotten around to it. Three other people have basements.

Not sure I want to be in the same neighborhood as the guy who has had two houses blown away - he might be a tornado magnet.

I think you may have read too far into me using the term "hysteria" as I am also one who has purchased an inground shelter in the last 12 months. I wasn't emphasing the people who purchased the shelters, as much as I was trying to reference the many "fly by night" companies, that popped up over night, that were not necessarily qualified to offer said services. A lot of them, have now gone out of business. There are a lot of shelters out there that have been installed over the past year, that will have significant structural issues in the coming years, and the homeowners will have no one turn to for help, because these contractors are back in Tejas, or Montana, or wherever they were from.


You didn't even really need to insured or bonded to start a storm shelter business. All you needed was a business license, or federal ID#, and you could go to Cushing, OK...and buy premaid shelters from the distributor. (Hausner's PreCast), and have it stamped with your company name. (Which, is what most of the current companies operating have done.) Next thing you know, anyone with a pickup truck/trailor could be in the storm shelter business.

[PennyQuilts]

If it was about fly by night companies, I am not sure why you'd categorize the consumers as engaging in "mass hysteria" but whatever. Your point about unreputable companies taking advantage is well taken.

[Filthy]

I am not sure why you'd categorize the consumers as engaging in "mass hysteria" but whatever.

I apologize, and will make a concerted effort to channel my future thoughts by posting literal terms, instead of using loose "figurative" exaggerations.

[PennyQuilts]

Snort. . And I will try to not be so literal.