Posted on 07/15/2011 9:02:15 PM PDT by ruralvoter
They mocked the Wright Brothers, too.
So if Laura Nell Britton’s latest invention, the Trash Can Storm Shelter, catches on, she’ll stand in good company.
Britton recently sunk two large plastic trash cans into the ground outside her Rolling Greens home, then installed rebar and poured cement around it and, voila! — instant, inexpensive shelter against the power of a tornado.
Now she’s hoping the idea will gain momentum and that the trash can manufacturer, Toter, will help her market this novel use for their product.
(Excerpt) Read more at ocala.com ...
I agree. Easy to throw stones at...until you ask people to come up with a better idea for that situation.
Not throwing stones. It is practical, and possibly could save your life if the house is blown away. Could have something more secure than that folding lid on top though
ping
might interest the list
I’ve always wondered about that. Best to have more than way in and out.
It’s a mobile home park. The mobile homes will be turned into toothpicks if a tornado rolls through.
In a direct hit, you would be sucked right out with those flimsy lids. Better, lockable lids with air holes that wont leak rainwater that will eventually fill it up is a must for a direct hit.
LOL!!!!!
Ideally you’d want several exit doors, and a shovel just in case.
A few passes with a Ditch Witch, and you’d have an ideal hole for it.
The old time tornado shelters that I grew up around in Oklahoma generally were a reinforced concrete room in the back yard. And, you can sardine a lot of people much less the whole family into a 10’ x 10’ room when you have to.
The shelter was set in the ground with a foot or two of the sidewall above grade and with a concrete roof. One or two air vents with U-inverts were in the roof and probably 2 or 3 real small windows in the portion of the sidewall above grade. The entry door was above grade and opened swung upwards to open. Since the door was made of steel plate and quite heavy there would be a cable and counter weight to make it easier to open and shut. A fancy shelter might have a bed, some folding chairs and be wired for electricity with a supply of candles for backup. To pull double duty, there were often shelves for storing canned goods. We had variations on this kind of construction such as a below grade,concrete room as part of the well house or another that was integrated into the backyard porch. Probably the greatest single use for lots of tornado shelters was for kids to play in as they were a naturally cool spot in the hot summer.
I've seen free standing above ground construction that would provide a safe room but it's more expensive than going in ground. In new construction, the cost of an integrated safe room is a reasonably small add-on cost.
Yep, sure would.
"In new construction, the cost of an integrated safe room is a reasonably small add-on cost."
With very minor tweaking, it can double as an integrated vault for valuables as well, making it another kind of "safe" room.
Look on the web for buried storm shelters. I did and many are pretty slick. They are often large plastic forms that one can buy installed for around 3,500-5,500 installed.
Well, it's certainly better than being crushed by the debris as said house collapses (although the truth is that houses don't collapse, they mostly explode due to the pressure difference). Not foolproof, but certainly ups the probability of survival.
This is not a new concept. Individually sized underground shelters were dotted all over the city of Hanoi during the Viet Nam war.
A large concrete or metal culvert pipe makes a good strong one as well. Can be buried vertically or horizontally and will withstand dirt pressure of any depth.
“Could have something more secure than that folding lid on top though”
Those can be pretty tough lids...and you don’t want it to be too heavy if something is also on top of it. The key is keep it from getting blown open, which probably is not that hard to do (i.e., a string wrapped around a cleat).
Problem with all shelters, more so with shelters next to the house or inside your garage. That’s why, here in Oklahoma, people register their shelters with the police and fire departments so that when the big one comes and you’re buried by debris, emergency services can come and dig you out.
The big problem I see with her shelter is the top. It’s just a plastic trashcan lid. I wonder how secure it will be when a tornado passes directly overhead.
I just installed a 8 x 8, concrete, below ground shelter with a solid metal door that can be dogged-down from the inside. Total cost, $2470.00.
Plan on a good view of a tornado above you when that plastic lid blows off.
This thing would be better than nothing but not by much. If one is working with reinforcing rods and concrete, one should start with a better plan than plastic garbage cans.
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