Tornado Shelter

 I still can't believe we live somewhere where tornado precautions are necessary!

Oklahoma gets more tornados than any other state in the nation. However, Tulsa doesn't really get THAT many by comparison. The last damage-causing tornado in Tulsa was in 2017. So while some parts of Oklahoma have damage-causing storms every year, Tulsa is not very high on the danger list. Because of that, we'd considered not even having a shelter installed.  We figured we could just head to our master closet (the most interior room we have) in case of emergency. We talked to neighbors and most of them didn't have a shelter which was surprising to us. In the end, though, there's a certain peace of mind that a storm shelter brings, so we started doing our research and decided that an above-ground shelter in the garage would be perfect for us.

We called a company that we first spoke to at a Home and Garden show in Tulsa last month. They came by last week to measure and in less than a week, they were here for the install! They custom-built this shelter just for us to fit our space. We wanted to be able to still access the attic via the pull-down ladder and also wanted the door on the short side so that we can place a workbench along the long side.

I had a good time watching the process for installation, starting with how they get this big one-piece shelter off their trailer! It took them less than an hour to get it installed which I found impressive. They even took the time to wash the exterior so it was free of hand prints. That attention to detail is much appreciated!

All done!

Storm season here peeks between March and June. We beat the spring rush and we are ready to go! We will fill it with necessities such as food and water and it'll be ready for use as needed. Last year, the tornado siren sounded just once in our neighborhood. Liam's school has two different shelters (they're BIG. They fit the entire school population and then some) so if a storm hits during the day, we know he'll be safe at school.