After the last couple of years of terrifying thunderstorms and deadly tornadoes, my husband and I have decided to put a storm shelter in our back yard. Always before, we have just thrown the kids in the laundry room or closet with blankets and pillows, but the loss of life sustained in the past year by surrounding communities has convinced us that we need something a little more substantial than four walls and some feathers protecting us!
I have discovered that there are several kinds of shelters to choose from. The above-ground “safe” rooms are steel rooms bolted to your floor somewhere, such as the garage or wherever you have some extra space. These can double as a closet or storage room as long as you can squeeze your family inside when the time comes.
We decided to go with the below-ground model after hearing about the Pizza Hut walk-in cooler that was carried away in the Joplin tornado.
There are several different sizes and models with varying price tags. We chose one that is concrete and comes in two pieces: the body, and the lid which stays above ground. There are vents in this lid, supposedly to keep the shelter dry. We’ll see.
There were two different storm shelters that I visited as a child: one at my grandmother’s house, which my grandfather had built; and the other one a slightly newer model, built by my brother-in-law. Neither were dry!
The one constructed by my grandfather was built into the side of a hill in the back yard, sometime in the 1940s. He used concrete and,for some reason, empty tin cans spaced evenly throughout - I would guess so he didn’t have to buy so much concrete. The only parts of the cans visible were the ends. Of these tin cans, a couple of them had the end almost completely cut out but still attached by about a quarter inch of metal. Mom said he had planned on using these as hiding places. For what, we weren’t sure; but every time as kids we were made to go to the “cellar,” we checked those tin cans to see if they held any treasure - It’s a wonder we didn’t cut our fingers off. My grandfather had died many years before, but we still checked, just the same. The adults could have played a grand joke on us if they had ever thought to hide something in one of those cans.
Grandpa had also added wooden shelves for my grandmother’s canned goods. By the time we used the cellar as a shelter, these shelves were quite rickety and probably posed more of a danger to us than any tornado.
And, oh, the bugs! Crickets and spiders of infinite variety called that cellar home. I even remember seeing a toad or two. If you were the least bit squeamish, it was not the place for you to be. It was dark, dank and musty. The floor was always damp, and there were still a few old jars of pickles on the shelves. But I guess it would have kept us safe in the event a tornado had ever borne down on the old place.
Now, the one my brother-in-law built in the late ‘60s was also constructed in the side of a hill, but it was about 30 yards from the back door of the house, making for a long wet dash through the rain on those times that we had to use it.
When it was new, it was quite comfortable; but after a year or two, it always held a few inches of water. We sat in lawn chairs with our feet up. And trust me, it didn't take long for the bugs to find it! There were crickets everywhere, not the black ones, but the big ugly greenish-tan ones that give me the shivers - and spider webs just dripping from the ceiling.
Now this was way before tornado sirens. We were out in the country anyway, so we never had the luxury of being warned a few minutes before the storm was to hit. My sister would spy a cloud, deem it possible of producing a “Wizard-of-Oz-like” tornado, and off to the cellar we would go, sometimes to sit amongst the water and the bugs for hours. Good times!
We had good imaginations, though, something required of kids back then, so we made up all kinds of tales of being transported to far-off, exotic places, like Kansas or Missouri, and finding a yellow-brick road of our own.
Out of all those hours spent in shelters as a child, no dark, deadly funnels ever descended on us; but had that happened, we would have been safe - a little damp and musty, maybe, with some cobwebs in our hair, but safe!
Thus the reasoning behind our decision to drop some money into our own back yard. I will wait and see if our new “cellar” can be water and bug-resistant. I am a bit skeptical, but time will tell. And if not, at least the kids will have some stories to tell when they are grown, of sitting underground with wet feet, dodging spiders and crickets while the storms rolled harmlessly by above.
A quick update: We have since sold our house in town and moved to the ‘burbs. And guess what? No storm shelter. And then I watched as the news gave the awful reports from Moore, Okla., about the horrible loss of property and life. Our hearts and prayers go out to them.
This really makes us want to add a storm shelter to our new house too. Sometimes the government will offer rebates, so it’s worth checking into. The good news is that our garage is a few feet below the ground and would suffice, I suppose, if we ever spy a funnel cloud. So, until we can afford another shelter, we will just have to be vigilant.
And to you, friends and neighbors, keep your heads down and your eyes open until the season passes!
Tamela Weeks is a freelance writer in the Gentry area. She may be reached by email at [email protected].
Opinion, Pages 4 on 06/19/2013