Well my Neighbor is a prepper.....

[Rick]

My cousin put one in the ground on a shallow water table. They have wings and chains that keep the thing in the ground. I didn't see it during construction only his vague explanation afterwards. It's been 3 years and it hasn't popped up yet.

[Fixit]

There goes the neighborhood . Now everyone will want one for Christmas .

[LowKey]

While I suppose you could get one of those fiberglass jobbers, water has a serious way of wanting in to spaces where you don't want it.
Do a web search for all the shelters that not only popped out of the ground in the Oklahoma flooding, but the others that filled up with water or had their doors completely underwater as well.
I'd almost rather take my chances on the water coming down the hill over the top and around the shelter, since I'm more concerned about tornado than flooding. Plus it would make a handy root cellar/shed.
Always have a plausible ulterior motive for the nosy neighbors.

[Rick]

What that? Oh, yeah. We've been taking a lot of water in the recent rains so we're putting in a culvert to drain it. Yeah, that's the ticket.

[DSJohnson]

I would love to know what it looks like on the inside and how much it cost (Tax, tag, and title) Big cranes are not cheap....Dang I am impressed. They may use that for a storm shelter but I will bet a lot of money that was not the primary reason they/she bought it. Living in Oklahoma I have two cellars on my place and during the spring we use the one by the house pretty regular. It is a 10' X 10' cinderblock with a poured floor and a poured roof. It is about 55 years old now. It does make some water during the spring. It has a sump and I use a very small electric submersible pump to keep the water level down. Some springtimes when it has been very wet (but not in the last 10 years) it will fill the sump up (the sump is about the size of a deep 6 gallon bucket) and there will be water two or three inches deep on the floor. But usually I can pump it about once a week and keep it dry. We have a bed and a table and some chairs down there and two kerosene lanterns and one newer Coleman Propane lantern. We have spent a lot of nights in there over the last 30 years. I would not live in Oklahoma without access to a below ground storm shelter period.

[Rick]

DS - Gotta say something about ventilation with those lanterns. I know you know that.

[WalkingTree]

I feel like if I were to build something for any kind of post-collapse purposes (versus just a storm shelter), I would put a lot of effort into having multiple layers of waterproofing all around any underground sections, and lots of winging to grab onto the ground and keep it from popping up. If I were to do anything like that at all, it'd get real serious and expensive. Otherwise wouldn't bother.

Building something for an apocalypse isn't something I've made a hobby to think about a lot, but per my habit - as a fun exercise - I asked myself once how would I do it if I ever did. And what I came up with would be pretty darned involving and expensive. Even without it being some castle-house, which it isn't.

[Rick]

I would be sooooo ticked to go to all that expense and trouble only to find myself at ground zero.

Opening door and peeking out at incoming ICBM. "You have got to be kidding me. Seriously?"

I've always said a really bad day is opening your curtains to find a 747 a quarter of an inch from your window and almost on the ground.

[kyratshooter]

Seems some of us view these things as emergency weather shelters and others as TEOTWAWKI bunkers.

I guess it all depends on how many times you have been through a tornado and how many times you have been through a nuclear war.

[hunter63]

....I guess I'm more in the tornado, flood, mud slide category....than nuke war and zombie hordes...
Always wanted to build an "Ag building with in the side of the hill,.. with a secure room inside out of sight
Concrete walls, ceiling and heavy door/vents in side of the hill.... against the bank.

For storms, easier to secure, and easier to keep above freezing year around... think food storage with live in shelter amities.

[WalkingTree]

I would be sooooo ticked to go to all that expense and trouble only to find myself at ground zero.

That would soooo suck.

[hunter63]

That would soooo suck.

....and you would never know that it even sucked.....with out time for a "Awww Ship!
You would back as part of the cosmos......

[Desert Rat!]

indoor shooting range and bowling I'm guessing

[DSJohnson]

DS - Gotta say something about ventilation with those lanterns. I know you know that.

Aye sir yes sir. I sure understand your "need" to comment. Most all the cellars I have ever been in/used or for that matter even seen have vents on them and most all of them may have two vents. Plus unless it is raining hard enough to float the Ark the door is open so you can see if the storm is actually close. Still it is a very valid warning and real concern...Both CO and low O2 issues I would think, in the right combination/situation would be fatal.

Nowadays what you see around here are the "pre-cast" two piece cellars. Much more affordable that digging a hole and pouring a cellar and around here it can be ready to use in less than 4 hours from the time they show up to install it. Above ground so called "Safe Rooms" are gaining some popularity but I would never have one for a tornado shelter.

[DSJohnson]

I, personally, can not create a scenario where me having a bunker is reasonable/plausible/worthwhile.

[Antonyraison]

I see you are outside of the country, so I will attempt to best answer this question from my knowledge of the problem. If you come to visit you would never be able to guess that the USA is transforming into a third world nation. The national socialist press here is providing a positive spin to accept illegal immigration from South America and 1/4 of the population of Mexico now lives here. Recently S.A. Catholic priests visited west Philadelphia last year and saw the poverty first hand and said it was worse here than Guatemala in some places. There are very few to grocery stores in the Democratic city, and our location here is 25-35 miles west of the city. In the last ten years vagrancy, foot traffic, and illicit drugs has doubled in the suburbs. The war on drugs was lost, our 18-30 year old men & women cant get a job, stay home, live with the parents and smoke weed. Divorce among young people has exceeded 30%, and unemployed young African American men are well above 50% from the national census. Most people here in the USA are unaware that 95 Million people including myself are not working. I lost my job last month. The press won't talk about how bad it is, its a non-sequitor. For example, a few years after the current administration took office, the rampant poverty here in Philadelphia, and Camden changed. Many took to living under the highways and set up tent towns in NJ and PA. The last time that happened was when we had Hoover-ville's. Today they are called Obama-ville's, they are allowed to exist for a few years and quietly they are scuttled and moved to new locations or absorbed into sub housing.

More to come....

Yes, I am from out of the country, Southern africa, 3rd world country is something i know well, our country is on the brink of civil war.
we have less than 40% employment rate, we have people with degrees with out jobs, we have a drought that has lasted over a year, we have water restriction, our currency is worth less, our government is pretty worthless. Drugs, violence and theft is rampant, you can't talk to any south african that has not been involved (as a victim) of violent crime (myself I been hijacked , mugged and tied up in a house robbery for 2 hours straight) we know nothing but struggling to make a buck.

[Antonyraison]

The persons that go to this much trouble are usually of the opinion that it only takes one incident to kill you, and just because it has never happened before does not mean it will not happen tomorrow.

Almost every part of the U.S. has some predisposition for natural disaster; earthquake, bushfire, flood, tornado, blizzard, nuke accident. Many local and regional governments will assist in funding the installation of shelters to withstand these natural disasters. In my village there is one man that makes a living installing prefabricated fiberglass storm shelters. Normal preparations would include an intent to outlast the event and return to normalcy, and then there are those that prepare like the above individual.

While most of us like to spend time in the bush, and this is a wilderness oriented forum, we still spend the majority of our time in civilization, meaning that the majority of the emergencies we will face will be inside the realm of "modern problems" with technology at hand.

While my first aid kit will work if I am mauled by a wild animal, injured by my axe or knife or fall from a cliff, the chances I will use it to treat the victim of a vehicle crash on a crowded highway are much higher.

Much of our knowledge, and equipment, is usable in a multitude of circumstances.

Makes sense, I suppose it depends on the like;l;y hood of the threat, had we had different weather systems or on fault lines it may be different here.

[Antonyraison]

As poverty rises in the city so does the need for subsidized housing and EBT food cards to be distributed. Liheap programs provide the dead broke heat and some electricity. So we are experiencing a shocking amount of Democratic subsidy being provided to everyone below middle class, including the working poor, and non working poor.
Housing, food, discounted cable, free cell phones, free medical, free just about everything... odd not free water. But for some, many are fleeing the city for the burbs and Montgomery County to the north is feeling the pressure as well as Delaware County.

Violent Crime is on the rise here, and the current situation is unsustainable. The Federal Prisons are providing early release and over 100,000 violent criminals are out this year due to Presidential Penmanship. Muslim Donte Brooks, aka Abdul Wahi was serving 15 years on weapon and drug violations and was released last year after serving 9 years. He fail to show up for his Probation and failed his drug tests. A year later he shot Police officer Dorman in the face with a stolen gun, here in Delaware County.


Those that graduate college and have good careers are completely blind to what I am describing as they live in nice quiet neighborhoods that I service.

I hope that answers your question...

Again something we are familiar with.
Myself I would be termed middle class in my country, I am blessed.
but a lot of our population is waaay bellow the bread line. they live in informal settlements surrounding metropolitans, the government has initiatives for subsidized housing/free housing for the poorest.. however the government is very corrupt and steal most of the tax payers money and spend it o n lavish housing and cars. Some people if they lucky enough to get such a house (it's usally a terrible small dwelling) would then sell it, and try get back on the list, our situation is very dire.
with Land reform, and redistribution, we have had for years upset people taking the law into their own hands, invading farms and killing farmers to take lands by force.

[Antonyraison]

I know that if I had a storm shelter with access from my house I would use it three or four times each year. That is about the number of really strong storms that cross my land.

I stood in my back window and watched a x4 tornado touch down about 1/2 mile away back in March 2012. That one had skipped across IL, IN, most of north KY and into OH killing more than 20 people on its journey.

When I went outside the next morning it looked like a B52 had made a run across the country side. Pyres of smoke from burning buildings showed its path clearly.

Yep, I wish I had one, perhaps not as extensive as shown in the photos but a nice 10x10 block structure dug into the hill and roofed with concrete.

I have to agree with Rick on the poverty thing. We are in good shape if you have ever witnessed real hopeless mind crushing poverty with starving not just a possibility but a common occurrence.

And WOO, you have your crime figures mixed up with the 1970s, We were up 1.7% last year from two years of decline and we are still below the figures of 5 years ago, according to the FBI.

We are way below the figures from the 1970s-1980s for violent crime.

Ah, I see.. so I guess that would really depend on where you are, if you have those storms frequent enough its totally warranted..
as for the poverty and crime, this I do know of, if our systems where to fail a stock of surplus goods and a secure location would only hold a small family for a short period... it wouldn't be something pref-able, as such a situation would leave us in a civil war, we would be trapped, our best bet would be to flee to a safer area. Quickly quietly and in advance o f knowing it was going to happen

[Antonyraison]

I have been to Guatemala. Trust me. We are not worse than them.

Smaller shelters are fairly common here in the Midwest. I suspect further west as well. You only have to see one tornado coming at you to start digging a hole. The flip side of the post is it's her money. Imagine your surprise if something does happen and you find your self knocking on her door. Underground door that is.

Ahhh so really depends on area.