[muawiyah]

Oklahoma and Texas sit atop a vast plain of limestone on which there is a relatively thin layer of soils of different sorts. Sewers are blasted into the limestone ~ making them remarkably expensive.

Still, you can shelter in a drainage ditch and I have done so in Indiana ~ another karstland with somewhat different topography.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks for the mention.

Can you imagine being picked up in that 1999 storm with clocked winds at 318mph. Ouch.

[LaRueLaDue]

Oklahoma and Texas sit atop a vast plain of limestone on which there is a relatively thin layer of soils of different sorts.

Uh, not so much.

Old geologist speaking from memory here: The OKC area is underlain by mainly shale and sandstone/shale. The shale is essentially red clay at and near the surface. Very little limestone near the surface here. The problem with basements, etc. is the shale/clay: it is very hydrophylic, and the wet/dry spells, with the normal temperature extremes here causes havoc with foundations. In short, you can dig a basement, but keeping it intact and water tight over the next few years is not cost-effective. (I speak from experience of having one in my house in OKC years ago.) The limestone you speak of doesn't occur until you get farther south...