...for y'all to keep our area of Central Alabama in thoughts and prayers, as ANOTHER tornado came through early Monday Morning, resulting in at least 2 fatalities and many injured, along with extensive damage... this 'track' was about 5 miles or so to the north of us, but still way too close for comfort, and with all the folks in our town very gun shy regarding tornadoes at this point anyway, it's gonna be a long spring, unfortunately...
Thanks, y'all - hope everyone is doing well out there!
VKMfanHuey
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Huey -- I'm so glad you weren't in harms way AGAIN. Five miles is way too close!!! Thank goodness you and your family are okay!
ReplyDeleteTake care.
Thanks, Lady F...we are all fine, but we know a few folks who were affected by this storm.
ReplyDeleteIt's rough to see all these events going on around the area...we are just in the 'wrong spot', where conditions are perfect for tornadoes... it seems like the temps here will be warm all week...in the 60s...so, heck, guess winter is over here...
Hope you and yours are well also! How's little man? E-mail me, lady!!!
VKMfanHuey
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In your area houses should be built especially tornado safe. Frankly, I saw some of those tough houses and couldn't find them too pretty, but you've got kids and this makes it even more critical.
DeleteIn our area tornadoes aren't an issue, but if I lived directement in the middle of the tornado highway, I would invest in that kinda safety, if I had money to invest.
Good point, Miss G. Here's hoping those rebuilding will employ those designs. I don't know how they would hold up in a direct hit but I seem to recall one with a safe room in the prior Alabama disaster, and though hit directly, its owners weren't injured.
Delete@Miss G: Le budget c'est moi!
DeleteThose houses look a bit like little fortresses. Even an F5 tornado can't destroy that. Of course you have no upstairs there.
...funny y'all are bringing up construction...I work for the Building Code Council (ICC)... after last April's storms, some folks from FEMA came in to do damage assessments, and verify locations where safe rooms or underground shelters were... strangely enough, none of the spots that had safe rooms or shelters were in the path..in PG, anyway... but now, the Guv of the state is pushing to 'mandate' safe rooms or shelters for ALL new construction, residential or commercial... FEMA awards grants to folks if eligible (that's a few hoops to jump thru, of course). ICC has a 'standard' which gives minimum requirements for building shelters and safe rooms... ICC-500. I have learned quite a bit about all of this since last April, and these things do work well...100%? well, no -nothing is... but believe me, after touring all the damage (including my old house, or what was left of it), there's really no safe place in a house that doesn't have a reinforced room in it...these are better than underground shelters, cause they are more easily accessed...like this last one, which came thru at 3 AM...most folks aren't gonna drag outside in cold weather to get in one.
ReplyDeleteHa, the GOP is raving against FEMA a lot and Ron Paul is the worst of all. Alabama please listen carefully!
DeleteOn the weather channel they said some tornadoes not even ripped off asphalt, one even did the same to the prairie sod. But this was only one case.
There are many cases of people who just survived because they had taken shelter in a closet or something.
Shelters outside of houses should be part of public infrastructure. But again, the GOP is against doing something for infrastructure. "You're on your own."
Sorry, I am extremely politicized in this campaign year. I can hardly think different.
ok - worried I was running out of 'capacity'... anyway, Lady F is right - there were some folks in north Alabama that walked out of their safe room onto a vacant lot where their house used to surround it...
ReplyDeleteI've thought a lot about getting at least a storm shelter outside, as 'retrofit' of a safe room is kinda tough... but it can be done...and, these rooms can be anything - they don't have to be 'dedicated' rooms... a common practice is to make these rooms a walk-in closet... they don't even have to be in the 'interior' of the house, but can be on an exterior wall. One of the big requirements is that the door into it MUST be steel or something equivalent (NO wood, of course) - AND this door has to be latched at each corner of it, as well as at the knob, and the other side of the door away from the knob...so, a 'six-point' lockdown.
OK, I could probably blabber on abotu this all night, but... thanks, y'all...hopefully this season will not be as bad.
VKMfanHuey
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