Belowground storm shelters are best, but some aboveground rooms will work--if the storm isn't too severe
However, since the number of fatalities from tornadoes is still far from zero, much more improvement is needed on behalf of the public's education, practice and preventative measures.
This article is reprinted with permission from Accuweather.com. It was first published on March 12, 2012.
See what we're tweeting about
huler I was going to join NC GOP, but would have had to give up my bicycle. Could only ride a HETEROcycle. like it says in the bible. #darnit
michaelshermer Read this week's eSkeptic smack down of Sylvia Browne by a brilliant & marvelously funny writer Ingrid Hansen Smythe http://t.co/ikaj2X2HMS
sciamblogs Why Portland Is Wrong About Water Fluoridation http://t.co/wun4TYVOpZ by @Sci_Phile at #SciAmBlogs
Deadline: Jun 29 2013
Reward: $7,000 USD
The Seeker for this Challenge desires proposals for chemical methods that could rapidly degrade a dilute aqueous solution
Deadline: Jul 25 2013
Reward: Varies
This challenge provides an opportunity for Solvers to build a web-based or mobile “app” to explore data relationships in scholarly conte
Powered By: 
YES! Send me a free issue of Scientific American with no obligation to continue the subscription. If I like it, I will be billed for the one-year subscription.
8 Comments
Add CommentSurvived the Joplin tornado by going into the basement. The funnel took most of the upstairs away and dropped the chimney in the front room . . . opposite end of the basement where we were. Heating ductwork and floor joists crashed down, but we were safe at the other end up against the patio. Everyone came through, but the place was blitzed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thismonolithic.com
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf you have insurance, get destroyed, and can rebuild.... build smarter next time. Pass the word. Dead people = poor people or stupid rebuilders.
'If you are building a new home' build monolithic.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.monolithic.com/topics/benefits-survivability
No, I'm not a paid representative of Monolithic, Inc...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"there have been vast improvements in public awareness thanks to advanced warnings in the public and private sector."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisApparently not enough awareness, such a lack of awareness, in fact, that people don't know that for at least the past 40 years one could build an entire home that can withstand a direct impact from an F5 and survive as habitable after the storm passes... and all the people and possessions within can be safe.
That being the case, anyone who has built a new home then died in it in the past 40 years due to a tornado (or nearly any natural disaster) has died as a result of their ignorance.
And yea, it pisses me off. Insurance rates are higher, casualties are higher, waste of resources is higher... stupidity PISSES me off.
Why do I even bother?? (assumes keening petulant whine)--> People don't like domes..... I'd neeeever live in a dome, they're ugly. No one wants to live in a round house!
Funny enough, it's really really hard to live in a "beautiful" rectangular or square house in a tornado, too.
Think about that.
Think about this, too... Birds and reptiles lay round eggs, sure, because they don't have rectangular cloacas, but also because round is stronger, so strong that extremely thin eggshells can hold up the weight of a man.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRaindrops falling from the sky reach the ground unbroken because they assume a spheroid shape on the way down, the wind just flows around them leaving them unscathed.
Gas bubbles in water assume spheroid shapes because they're the most stable shape, same with most types of living cells...
Bathyscaphes reach the deepest parts of the ocean, with men inside, 1100 atmospheres and survive intact, even James Cameron is going to the deepest part of the ocean in a few weeks in one...
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/03/120308-james-cameron-deepest-mariana-trench-challenger-science-sub/
ROUND is stronger, and round + steel-reinforced concrete is stronger than either alone.
Steel-reinforced concrete domes = Monolithic.
Get smart people, or get dead.
Why not build geodesic domes for above ground shelters. Just deeply anchored. See "Desert Domes" for build your own models. A fiberglass kit only requires two sizes of triangles, to make hexagons and pentagons which form a dome when appropriately fastened together. Buckminster Fuller domes have survived the world over.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy aunt in Mississippi just bought a tornado shelter, with all those storms down there now, she wanted to be prepared. She says she loves it and feels so much safer now. She said it was more comfy than she’d expected, too. It even has carpeting lol! She found them on this site www.survive-a-storm.com ... pretty neat :)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this