Tornado Resistant Homes for Oklahoma and beyond (2024)
A few advantages of owning an Earth Sheltered/Underground Home
1. Storm Safety An Earth Sheltered home keeps your family safe from hail, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc.
2. Leak Proof With our unique waterproofing system, your Earth Sheltered home can have a written warranty against leakage.
3. Insurance Breaks Solid concrete homes don’t burn, and tornadoes go right over them, so insurance costs are less than for “stick homes”.
4. Fire Resistant Reinforced concrete with earth cover offers the best fire resistance available. No need to worry about grass fires or a neighbor’s fire spreading.
6. Long Lasting Constructed of concrete and steel, Earth Sheltered homes will last well over 100 years, maybe a thousand!
6. Very Low Maintenance This means much less expense, fewer headaches, and more enjoyable weekends!
7. Cost-Effective With the solid construction, low maintenance and energy-efficiency of Earth Shelter, more of your assets stay in savings instead of supporting a deteriorating wood-frame home. Over 14 years, a 2,400 square foot Earth Shelter home can pay for itself in assets saved.
8. Civil Defense buildings All of these buildings are Civil Defense buildings. Would not all parents want their children protected? This would also apply to shopping malls as well.
An earth shelter, also called an earth house, earth bermed house, or underground house, is a structure (usually a house) with earth (soil) against the walls, on the roof, or that is entirely buried underground.
home keeps your family safe from hail, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc. With our unique waterproofing system, your Earth Sheltered home can have a written warranty against leakage. Solid concrete homes don't burn, and tornadoes go right over them, so insurance costs are less than for “stick homes”.
Homes built with insulated concrete forms (ICF), like Fox Blocks, maintain their integrity during the high winds of a tornado. Insulating concrete forms can withstand winds of over 200 mph.
Few, if any, above-ground structures can survive an EF-4 or EF-5 tornado with 166 mph and greater winds. Underground shelters are designed and advised for this scale of destructive force.
Prefabricated house kits made with structural insulated panels (SIPs) are designed to withstand high winds and flying debris. These homes can also sometimes be upgraded to incorporate reinforced materials, including steel and concrete board.
Tornadoes are rated on the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale, which gives these storms a rating from EF0 to EF5, with EF5 being the most intense and destructive. While no structure is entirely tornado-proof, a well-built brick house can typically hold its ground against tornadoes rated up to EF3 and even EF4 in some cases.
Constructed with metal, a barndo offers superior protection from severe weather. The steel structure of a steel barndominium has a higher wind resistance than a conventional wood frame home. While the metal integrity of your home can endure a tornado, the windows and doors may not.
In Oklahoma everyone can go online and apply for the SoonerSafe Safe Room Rebate Program that draws twice a year (minimum) like a lottery all over Oklahoma for help getting tornado shelters. In disaster years they have been known to draw more than twice in one calendar year. Remember, you only get picked if you apply!
It's a very unsafe place to be… So, we do not want people trying to outrun a tornado. You could actually drive into the path of the tornado. So that's one reason we do not have public shelters,” said George.
Avoid the open areas of buildings with wide-span roofs such as grocery stores, gyms, auditoriums and theaters. Deaths have occurred in large, single story department stores, like the Joplin, Missouri Walmart in May, 2011.
Most of the devastation was experienced in wooden buildings usually constructed of 2x4 studs and plywood nailed together. It was interesting that most concrete, even cinder block buildings suffered much less, if any damage.
You'll need to be underground to survive an EF5 tornado, as that will completely remove a house from its foundation and can even strip concrete and grass from the ground. Your home will be in pieces and blown away from where it was. Thankfully, these are incredibly rare in America, and even rarer in Wisconsin.
The safest place in the home is the interior part of a basem*nt. If there is no basem*nt, go to an inside room, without windows, on the lowest floor. This could be a center hallway, bathroom, or closet.
Simply, no. There's no such thing as a completely tornado-proof house. According to a report on wind research, a tornado-resistant home would need the following components: Missile-resistant walls, roof, windows, doors, and garage doors to protect it from airborne debris.
Concrete is probably the best material for a hurricane proof house or any high risk construction. Concrete is strong, durable, readily available, fire resistant, and will last a very long time.
INCREDIBLE DAMAGE: Homes leveled with all debris removed. Schools, motels, and other larger structures have considerable damage with exterior walls and roofs gone. Top stories demolished.
But concrete currently is the only material that can hold up to severe tornados. However, there are decisions to make with concrete: designing and engineering for human safety and deciding how much to minimize the possibility of damage to the structure.
Misconception #1: Tornados can blow above ground shelters right off the concrete slab. This is far from the truth. Though many think that it's suction that causes the majority of tornado damage, the truth is that it is extreme wind speeds of surface air that is drawn to the vortex.
Heavy building materials (e.g., reinforced masonry or concrete) that are well tied to all other building components often survive extreme winds. The weight of these materials helps resist uplift and lateral loads, and heavy materials often stop windborne debris that can increase damage to the building.
Introduction: My name is Kelle Weber, I am a magnificent, enchanting, fair, joyous, light, determined, joyous person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.
