"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
...
One thing to consider is egress. If the house falls in on top of your
safe
room, that's one thing. If a house falls in on top of your car, which is
on
top of the safe room, you'd better hope someone knows where to look for
you,
'cause you won't be getting out on your own.

Keep your cell phone with you? As I said previously, there are compromises
to be made... If you put your safe room in the house and there is massive
damage, you might not be able to get out of it and you might have to wait a
long time before anyone finds you... With 2 of my 3 vehicles, I wouldn't
have a problem getting out of this sort of safe room since they have a bit
more ground clearance... With Graces Jeep Grand Cherokee, it would be a bit
more of a tight fit... Ultimately, you want something that you can get into
as quick as possible... This usually means something inside of your house...
Unfotunately, that's not really an option for some people... Having an
undergound room with a doorway from your house into it would be great, but
not as easy to build as a freestanding building... I saw an ad once for what
basically amounted to steel & concrete coffins that you entered during a
tornado... Big enough for an adult to lie down in... Since most tornados are
over fairly quickly, it probably wouldn't be too bad... If I remember
correctly, it was a side entry instead of a top entry like a true coffin...
I seem to remember that they made it with decorative panels so that it
wouldn't stand out too much in your house... A cushion on the top of it and
it could look like some sort of built-in seating along a window...

Of course, you could just dig yourself a couple of manholes in your yard...
A concrete culvert section to keep the ground from collapsing around you...
Maybe the rim could be raised a couple of inches so that rain doesn't fill
it up...

Personally, I have a small lake / water retention pond behind my house and
there is a large concrete culvert pipe approximately 4-5 ft in diameter that
empties into it... If I saw a tornado coming, I would run for it... The top
of it is perhaps 10 ft below the surrounding terrain and any thrown objects
would only have one direction that they could come from to get in the
culvert...

Oh well... Life is full of compromises...