Under ground survival shelters..

[Black Blade]

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I use these guys for some preps. They build and install UG shelters.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/safecastle#p/u/7/vK1P-Ii-hM8[/YOUTUBE]

[TRX]

If you dig, you'll hit water five feet down where I live. I found that out while running a new sewer line a couple of years ago. And that was during a dry spell; I imagine the water table rises considerably in the wet seasons.

Most people around here put the shelter 40-50 feet from the house, half sunk into the ground. So you slog out through the mud and rain to get to it, and it's either filled with wildlife or rain. Then you sit in the dark until you think you might be out of danger, then slog back through the mud back to the house.

FEMA has some decent information and recommendations for above-ground shelters. My wife and I have been talking about building one. Instead of putting it out in the yard, we're thinking of going right off the kitchen door, like a sort of heavy duty mud room in a farmhouse. Make it 4x8 and you'd have enough space for a couple of bunks so you could get some sleep to face work the next morning. Put a door opening from the kitchen into the shelter, and from the shelter out to the (relocated) back porch.

A mud-room style shelter would be available without leaving the house, and it would always be aired out and vermin-free, and you'd have electricity and internet, and the refrigerator and toilet only a short distance away if things looked quiet for a few minutes.

Downside: making sure it didn't fill up with "stuff"...

[BigAl]

You could bridge the top of a conex box with concrete to take the load off. need a good stone bed and backfill to keep the water away.

[4thIDvet]

Originally Posted by BigAl

You could bridge the top of a conex box with concrete to take the load off. need a good stone bed and backfill to keep the water away.

We have the same problem as TRX has. If we go even 1 foot down here in the swamp. We hit water.
Florida, surprisingly, is one of the states with a high tornado problem.
But, they are usually small but very damaging.
My buddy, sadly, working the Alabama tornado damage. Found a young missing girl, God rest her soul.
He was working the power lines.
If you live in tornado alley. Do something.

[j427x]

i would think that those steel shipping containers that come off cargo ships would be the thing to work with. they can be had reasonable too.

[yarro]

Pour a good foundation and slab. Fasten a shipping container to foundation. Cut a entrance into the side and required venting. Cover in concrete mesh and rebar. Shotcrete. Apply waterproofing. Pile earth on that into a nice low slope mound. Get sod growing on it.

-yarro

[Blackhawk2001]

Originally Posted by 4thIDvet

We have the same problem as TRX has. If we go even 1 foot down here in the swamp. We hit water.
Florida, surprisingly, is one of the states with a high tornado problem.
But, they are usually small but very damaging.
My buddy, sadly, working the Alabama tornado damage. Found a young missing girl, God rest her soul.
He was working the power lines.
If you live in tornado alley. Do something.

If you had the money, the concrete dome would work for a shelter; it doesn't need to be below ground and its shape and structure shrugs off tornadic winds and hurricane winds. If that's not possible, you can build a good-sized "safe-room" out of concrete block-rebar-concrete. I've also seen an article (Popular Mechanics, I think) that indicates you can anchor your roof to your foundation to make it more difficult for a tornado or hurricane to lift the roof off, which is what usually causes the house to collapse.