storm shelters

[Nelstomlinson]

On the electricity-in-the-shelter angle, here's my best guess:

If a live wire touches the outside of a metal box with you inside it, you should be fine. If the box is mostly buried, the current flowing through the box to ground might cause problems, like melting a hole in the box, but you shouldn't get in trouble. There was an incident a few years back, somewhere, in which a crane touched a 38kV line and was electrified. The way I heard the story, the operator was quite safe sitting in the crane cab. He didn't die until he panicked and jumped off the crane. The arc cooked him in mid air. Stay in the box until the electricity is shut off!

If the metal box is wired inside, and you are inside and touch the live wire and the metal box at the same time, you get shocked, just as if you were in your house and touched a live wire and a plumbing pipe at the same time. Same old familiar hazard.

 

[ArmyPair2]

got a new storm shelter and would like some ideas, picures of the landscaping or inside if you did something to it.


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Woody you can register your shelter like we did with the county EMA (Emergency Management Agency). If a tornado hits your area and you are on a list they will come out and check on you or phone you to see if your ok. After the 27 April 2011 we had a shelter installed and it can sit up to 15 people. Living also in Alabama we know we get our fair share of tornadoes

The door was developed in Texas for a F 5 Tornado and the shelter was designed to withstand a lightning strike. In our shelter we just have the basics like food,water and survival gear and our phones work like a charm as long as the phone towers are still up. Our setup is different from yours as you can see with the photo's.

I have no flammables in the shelter like for the chainsaw, generator or for cooking that is stored in a cache away from the shelter. Seeing the power of a tornado on TV does no justice until you see it with your own eyes. I just seen the date this was posted but if it helps others then so be it.

 

[franklin2]

I keep thinking about the door thing too. The door and the concrete entry form a little "cubby" and we all know normally leaves and debris through the year like to settle and collect in little recessed areas like this. I wonder if in a big storm larger stuff blowing by would like to collect in that small "still" area where there is less airflow.

I know you just paid for this thing and changing it may be impossible, but I like the idea that was proposed to have some sort of "trick" or plan with the tools/methods necessary to get through the door if it was stuck. Or have another way out. You never know, even if you had the door open to the inside, there may be something big there that you could not get around anyway. Like the roof of your house laying on top of it. A battery operated sawzall may be a handy thing to have in a emergency.

 

[skyhook]

Keep in mind, those "side wings" to the door may collapse and block the door.

 

[SandburRanch]

Woody ask about landscaping / interior. I'm wondering where he got any ideas and how it looks now.

 

[franklin2]

Woody ask about landscaping / interior. I'm wondering where he got any ideas and how it looks now.

This was a old thread wasn't it.

 

[SandburRanch]

This was a old thread wasn't it.

An old thread with chicken little, the sky is falling answers to his question.

 

[Nelstomlinson]

Yes, it's an old thread. I was looking for storm shelter info and stumbled across that electrical question I could answer. I hit reply before I realized I was dragging forth something that had long ago been decently buried. Of all things, a storm shelter should stay buried!

 

[franklin2]

An old thread with chicken little, the sky is falling answers to his question.

Wrong board for landscaping questions. I hate landscaping, I just want to mow it, not pull weeds and spread mulch