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Subscribe to RSSJOPLIN, Mo. -- Lacy Dean and her husband, Jake, were watching the storm on television as they were sitting down for dinner on May 22. When the tornado warning sirens sounded, they gathered Camryn and Blake, their two young children, and Lacy’s mother, Brenda, and headed to the tornado shelter that was partially sunk into their back yard. They were the only family in their neighborhood that had one.
Jim Seida / msnbc.com
Seven-year-old Camryn Dean sits on top of her family's tornado shelter with her brother Blake, 9, and her mother Lacy (right) and grandmother Brenda Blalock, Wednesday, Aug. 17, in Joplin, Mo. The Deans survived the tornado that destroyed their Joplin neighborhood by hunkering down in the shelter. "We walked out without a single scratch on us," she says.
As the storm approached, Lacy, who says she’s normally the first one in, stood in the open doorway of the shelter. “I didn’t think it was going to be that bad” she said. “I thought we’d come out 10 minutes later and sit back down to dinner.” The rain started coming down hard, so she closed the square, steel door and descended the short ladder to join her family in the 6-by-8-foot concrete bunker.
“Then the wind started picking up,” she said. Pieces of bark started falling through the two small vents on the top of the shelter, followed by ashes and still-glowing coals from the charcoal grill she used to cook dinner. The family hunkered down in the safety of the shelter, listening to the tornado churning over their heads. “The door rattled, we thought that it might go, “ Dean said, “But everything held.”
When it was over, Jake climbed the ladder, opened the door and looked outside. “It’s gone,” he said. “The house?” asked his mother in law. “The neighborhood,” he answered.
The Deans walked away from the tornado without a scratch. Others weren’t so lucky. One woman on the next block was one of 160 people that lost their lives.
Jim Seida / msnbc.com
FEMA wouldn't let people occupy their temporary housing units near the Joplin airport until safe rooms, like this one were installed.
If you drive around Joplin today, you’ll see new, even bigger tornado shelters sitting outside schools, fire departments and temporary housing units. These above-ground units are called “safe rooms,” and unlike the in-ground tornado shelters, they’re handicap accessible and can generally hold more people. There are 37 such units parked just outside Joplin’s new, albeit temporary, high school and they have enough capacity to hold 1,200 people in the event of another tornado. FEMA says it has installed 67 shelters at six different Joplin schools at a cost of $3.3 million.
Why the sudden onslaught of shelters in a town where before there were so few, and none at the schools? “Safe rooms are always a good idea. This is part of our housing mission. We didn’t let people move into the temporary housing units until we put the safe rooms in,” says FEMA external affairs specialist Crystal Payton. Looking at the schools that were destroyed by the tornado, one can’t help but wonder what would have happened had the students been sitting in the hallways, heads between their knees and hands over their heads.
The physical safety is not the only benefit to providing safe havens from potential tornados. “It’s psychological security to have these things sitting out here. It means you have a safe place to go,” says Marcus Spade, a public affairs specialist with the Army Corps of Engineers. “Especially after you’ve been through what these people have been through, losing their homes. Most of them were probably in their homes when the storm was going. I know if I experienced something like that I’d feel pretty good knowing I had a storm shelter within a one-minute walk of where I was.”
Jim Seida / msnbc.com
Aaron Miller, owner of Midwest Storm Shelters, shows off a safe room he installed in a new house.
Aaron Miller owns Midwest Storm Shelters, a local company that builds and installs residential tornado shelters and safe rooms. He installed the shelter at the Dean’s home. The shelters are cast in two pieces and assembled on-site. One of his 6-by-8-foot (interior) 13,000-pound storm shelters will set you back $2,500 installed. “It’s cheap life insurance, “ says Miller, whose business has taken off. “I've installed more than one hundred units since the tornado,” he says. For comparison, he had installed only 30 in the five-month period before the storm.
When the Deans were installing their shelter back in 2005, Lacy says, the next-door neighbor’s wife was jealous. Her husband “thought we were crazy for putting one in,” she says. “He didn’t want to dig up his yard.” After the storm, the Deans bought that neighbor’s empty lot and plan to rebuild their home on it. “The tornado shelter will be the first thing we put in,” Dean says, “because it’s the last thing we came out of.”
More from msnbc.com's reporting trip to Joplin:
Photoblog: Tornado 'helps' couple downsize
Photoblog: After tornado's harsh lesson, Joplin's child survivors return to school
Story: Joplin students head back to a new high-tech high school, in the mall
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Storm cellars are nothing new. Lived out in Kansas back in the 60's, and they were very prevalent because people knew that they were a necessity. Kansas and other states are known for tornados, and even Kansas' name means winds (native Indians knew things too). But like anything, they cost some money.
Builders later stopped offering them in order to save money. This is know as being pound foolish, and penny wise. After all, what value do you put on your life?
Think about it ...
What a novel idea. Sort of like installing a furnace in New England.
You know these shelters should be mandatory except when the house has a basement or safe room built in. We require smoke detectors for fire. But every home should have working Weather alert system and a safe place to take shelter.
My great aunt called them a root cellar that saved lives. There are so many things that used to be done from common sense but common sense lost out to the almighty dollar. There are some of that would not be here today if not for those ROOT CELLARS, thank God for common sense.
Root cellars are wonderful!! My granny had one and survived the tornado of 1906 and 1950, even though the whole house blew away.
I thought I was safe until I opened a wall during remodeling. 16 inch center's were move to 18. NO reinforcement, as well as NO insulation value. I ended up triple studding walls along with 2x6's between, used 5/8 cement board, and tile to give me some sort of shelter.
My house was built in 1972, but it seems that "someone" DEVIATED from CODES.
Guess it seems that they too, (Joplin) didn't have adequate protection. Glad I saw this before I got hit. Now I think I am covered to the best of my ability. My house might blow down around me, but MY little safe room should stand the test.
It makes me wonder what other stick home developments missed the code like mine.
Many of the houses that blew away were built in the early to mid 1900's.
doem309
I have to ponder on the reliability of genuine honesty here. Homes are built with 18" centers, not 16" and in many or most of the older homes such as these, the walls were built on 24" centers. Nailing concrete board is useless other than a false sense of security. Having any type of an "above ground shelter room" is better than nothing, but mind you...these folks were hit by a mile wide tornado, that tore the massive trees that landscaped the entire area completely out of the ground and threw full sized automobiles half a mile away. Your room would have been a coffin.
How about update building codes so the the houses arent destroyed everytime a tornado hits.
Nobody wants to add an extra $20-50k building cost on to their house.
steelwalker Are you willing to live in a storm shelter? Your wife too?
Shipping containers can be had for cheap. Google shipping container homes. An 8x20 container can hold a lot of people. Bury one in your yard and you have instant safety plus you have taken a container from a growing pile.
Dear Joplin:
Why build a "storm shelter" that may only be used for 10 minutes every several years if a storm hits? Why not put your whole house half in-ground like the shelter shown? It WILL be slightly more expensive, and there may be water table issues in Joplin of which I am unaware[for instance, NO ONE has basements in most of FL]. But the benefits are excellent. Storm, fire and break-in safety, conservation of energy[cheaper AC/heat], lower maintenance costs, durability. more yard, better views and BBQs on the roof!
Now if I can just find a storm shelter to weather 2012: The Election...
Joplin has very rocky soil and a high water table. It is not uncommon that crawl spaces have to have sump pumps running 24/7.
Why not make the whole house a safe room? The extra cost would be well worth it, and insurance cost would plummet.
Their second use would be to store our money in there, it would be safer than any investment, would make a great safe. and the way the world is headed, sorry to say it, could be a self defense shelter, remember when we were kids, in school we would have drills in school, Civil defense stuff.
Self defense shelters were a bad idea bad then and make less since now. I noticed how many locks are on the outside of the indoor shelter. I would think you would make it easy to get in since you don't have a lot of time to find keys. It's like owning a gun for self defence and keeping it locked up.
@Moudo: Hey, genius - you don't have to lock the damn door until you're inside. For example, someone breaks into your house; you get your family inside the safe room and THEN lock the door.
Hey Miker 3057253, in MO we have concealed carry. Someone breaks into my house, I'm going to shoot him.
You don't need a concealed carry permit to shoot someone in your own home.
What if your wife and kids are there and someone breaks in while you're at work? What was your point, anyway?
You two take your gun permit issues to another damn thread. These folks are talking about the necessity of storm shelters. Shelters (6' x 8') can be built as a necessity for survival. They can be built at minimal cost, with moisture proofing. Some talk of estimates of $20 and that's ridiculous and not fact based. People have used steel culvert ribbed pipe for angled emergency shelters for years, with seep floors and doors. We are talking about saving your families' lives. The problem throughout the 1900's was with the people themselves, and having poor attitudes as represented here in many comments, when they panned homes.
Four foot tall (deep) berm (raised) landscape, with an exposed angled (lowered) side to allow stone foundations on three sides for the rest of the house to be built around, allows for a 4 foot crawl space and lower than ground protection in case of storms.
People just needed to set priorities straight is all. We use to have family reunions when I grew up. If someone needed a garage or shed put up, we had reunions planned around the event. Food, desserts, strawberry Rhubarb pie, homemade ice cream, the works. It isn't impossible for folks to plan such events even with friends and pitch in to install minimal shelters using a go as you grow mindset. It is their lives that are on the line here.
The problem with these deaths was lazy brained leniency. People grew accustomed to not being struck by tornadoes ("Happens to them not us" attitudes). It's simply that simple. People were warned of the approaching intense storm and I would bet that most didn't even have their TV's or radios on in concern of the threat of severe weather. How many here that are reading, actually take concerned interests in approaching cells, looking for the tale tail scorpion tail on their internet weather maps or listen to the weather channel on their TVs or listen to their weather radio? How many, without offering rhetorical lies, actually can say they pay attentive heed to storms as they approach and do not literally grow accustomed to supposed impervious attitudes?
We need to use wisdom, simple as that. Without concern, we are often caught unawares. Then too, many succumb to the boredom of overly influential extreme-isms concerning weather. Many weather warning systems have been scrutinized for allowing civil alert testing to occur during calendar planned regular events, (testing every Thursday per say) even when storms were in the area, and people grew accustomed to ignoring the sirens. You don't ignite a candle when the lights are on in order to see, in like you don't want to "over-emphasize" weather alertness.
Use common sense, prepare and plan. If you have a shelter, make sure it is at least stocked with minimal bottled water, a radio, fresh batteries and a light, lantern, lamp flashlight. Make sure yoru secure area has elemental needs for when power fails, and what we lazily grow accustomed to is not present to be offered.
Most of these deaths could have been prevented if people had of just used their heads.
Here ya go- the easiest, cheapest storm shelter to be found.
1700 (or larger) Gallon Below Ground Cistern - 12ft long by 6ft high by 5ft wide. Easily hold 4-5 people for a short time.
Rent someone with a backhoe - dig a hole and pour in gravel or sand. Drop the cistern in the hole leaving the top partially uncovered where the manhole cover is.
Pour enough quick dry cement into the cistern to level off the 'floor' and provide extra weight and stability. Stack a few large water containers and crank battery lights inside in case of emergency and you are set. Heck, throw some old rugs, blankets and pillows down there in case you need it for an emergency 'tent'.
Totally waterproof and safe - at only around 2 grand for a new one.
I live in N.E., but I have a daughter & family in Ks., no way would I ever live there, but, most of the newer homes, her's included, have storm shelters, concrete bunkers. While I was there in April, we had two storms, not tornadoes, but close enough, hail that dents cars!!
Her children are used to it and right away, w/ certain warnings, they were screaming at me to go down!! They know when to go and when to wait.
I still would miss N.E., Ks. and the mid-west is so flat, few trees, love my mountains, BUT--some of the best and nicest people in the world live there!!!!!
They just HAD to pose that little girl provocatively??!!
You need to get some help.
Excuse me! As the mother of that little girl, I'm completely offended. She was not "posed" like that. It's just how she sat down on the shelter when the picture was taken. I'm trying to figure out what kind of person you are to take it to that level. Grow up!
This From FEMA .
Isn't it FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ?
Doing WE tHE PEOPLE'S BUSINESS .!
And I THANK YOU VERY MUCH..............
What a waste of money. The whole place will be a ghetto in 5 years anyway. No one will want to live there.
92% school retention from last year. New state of the art hospital announced. The lots that I have seen for sale are being snatched up pretty quickly.
i really like the pictured concrete vault idea in the middle of the house
sweet!
build it to use as a walkin closet
Great idea! Right up there with build the entire airplane out of the black box stuff.
No thanks - not the ones you have to go outside to get to. By the time a tornado hits, it's generally been storming pretty badly for an hour or so. Maybe more. Going outside to get in your backyard shelter means risking lightning strikes, hail, blowing debris, and falling tree branches or even whole trees. The tornado itself may be by far the worst but it's far from the only dangerous condition. The option might be to run outside as soon as it starts raining and sit in the shelter for hours, but that's hardly an attractive or realistic option.
I'm having my shelter installed inside the house, with a hydraulic jack inside to open the door if necessary.
Just do it up right in the beginning, use ICF's INSULATED CONCRETE FORMS, they are not much more expensive than stick built, and knowing you have a 12" wall that is continuous poured concrete with tons of rebar inside is awesome peace of mind,,, I did mine 11 years ago just 30 miles from there, my walls are about 18 feet high , includes the full basement, the entire outer walls are poured, and then I installed metal shingles, and NO not a sheet metal roof, you may be out more money up front, but if the correct doors and windows are used you can achieve up to R50 insulating value, so in 10 years time you have saved more than enough money and then some on your utilities, to make up for the extra expense ..... do your research, there is a place outside of Lamar, Mo. that specializes in this ,,,, I have no regrets.
Three deadbolt locks on a saferoom? I sure hope these folks have plenty of warning for any unexpected situation. Obviously something valuable to be stored inside, I'm certain the key won't be hanging beside the door. You awake from a deep sleep, the sirens are blaring, the lights are out, it's pitch black and pieces of the roof are popping off and,,,,, oh, where the hell are my keys!?!?
"My fellow citizens, in the wake of this tragic act of horse theft, I am determined to ensure that we can come together and lock this barn door. (All I require is a small donation to my re-election fund.)"
And they gather to hasp the barn door. Unfortunately not realizing the thieves are now cutting a hole in the roof as they celebrate the last bolt. I think I'll just sit back here and take in the whole picture.
great idea! is there any way the governor or politicians can raise money for them to build a very big shelter for the city to all go to when such an emergency arises?
Not feasible in a city of 45,000. Also, people would probably die trying to get to the shelter when they would have lived if they were at home.
Threee years ago when i built my home I made the master bedroom walk in closet a concrete storm vault. It has a steel door and the construction cost is not much more. Instead of stud walls it is concrete and it is used every day. If its stormy we can walk in in our underwear without getting out in the weather. If we got hit with a tornado we could put some clothes on and walk out presentable.
I don't think THEY would sell you one in Florida for $2500. If so it would be cheaper than a shed down here and people would put them up and use them for a shed and a storm shelter.
I don't know why these shelters are being built above ground, old storm shelters were built into cellars. I guess something is better then nothing. If I lived in a Tornado prone area and had the money, I would build the house so that the whole house could be lowered into the ground. It would also have a flat roof and a lawn on top of it. In Joplin it gets very hot and humid, so lowering the whole house at bedtime would not only keep you safe from tornado's that may occur while you're sleeping, but the House would be cooler underground.
Sounds crazy, just thinking out loud...
A large reinforced concrete sewer pipe buried underground, maybe 6-8 feet in diameter would make a good and fairly inexpensive Storm Shelter.