Arkansas tornado 3 miles from our new house!

16 years ago

We had a wild night last night with all of the tornadoes sweeping through the Natural State. One of the hardest hit places was just a few miles from our new home.

We have moved in our home and have gotten most of the boxes put away. It is hard to think that our new house could've been wiped out last night. On the plus side, our home has a basement. We also decided to put in a 'safe room' which is under our front porch. It is 8'x40' and is completely encased in concrete. I cannot tell you how glad we were to have this feature last night. It was not very expensive to do, only requiring a bit more digging during excataion and some extra concrete when pouring the footings. Also, we are eligible for a tax credit from FEMA for adding this safety feature.

I drove through the town near us that was wiped out this morning, and it was a scene out of the movie 'Twister'. Please keep all of those affected by the storms last night in your thoughts and prayers.

And if you are building in an area where tornadoes are possible, please consider adding a safe room!

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Comments (9)

cork2win
16 years ago
Can you please post more info about the tax credit? We ended up with an unintentional safe room and I'll take any credit I can get!

Glad you weren't hurt. Scary stuff for February.
armomto3boys
16 years ago
Glad you are ok. We are trying to figure out where to put the safe room. I was going to have the pantry made into one, but since it's going to have to be built with concrete blocks, that will take away a lot of the space.

cork2win, in AR, FEMA will pay 50% of the cost up to $1000, I think. I'll see if I can find the link.
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armomto3boys
16 years ago
Here is the link for AR.

I wanted to add that my prayers go out to all those who have lost homes and loved ones due the storms in the region.

Here is a link that might be useful: FEMA safe room info for AR
lindybarts
16 years ago
((jennymama)) Glad you had the safe room. Prayers to those who lost their lives and homes.
owl_at_home
16 years ago
Jenny, I'm glad you're OK! I am online for the first time since the storm, thanks to a generator. I was just about to post to see if anyone else in this area was affected.

I also live within a couple miles of the tornado path, about an hour away from Jenny. They say here in Arkansas it was the same tornado on the ground for 120 miles.

Anyway, it went across part of our farm and totally devastated the trees on two hillsides. It killed at least one of our cows and injured some others. But, we were very lucky! Neither our current house nor the new house was damaged, but there are so many houses right around us that are totally destroyed, including one that was just built fairly recently.

The worst part for us now is that our nearest town was hit hard and the power is out to our entire county. The hospital and water treatment plant are both shut down, and they don't expect to get power back even in town for about a week. For us, it will probably be a couple of weeks, if then. So, I can only get online at certain times when we use the generator.

On the selfish side, I suppose progress on our house will be delayed a week or two, and now I'm anxious to get the last few details finished up since our builder will soon be in even greater demand because of all the rebuilding!

Here is a link that might be useful: My house blog
scwren
16 years ago
Glad you all are okay. So very scary.

My thoughts and prayers are with everyone in the path of those storms.
User
16 years ago
I am in an area of Kentucky that got destroyed. I have never seen, nor could I imagine, the destruction this county has suffered this week. The area that we will be building in sustained quite a bit of damage. We can't even get to our lot to see how many trees we lost yet. We are going to build a basement, and my husband, who is an engineer, has designed a steel safe room. Four days ago I thought he was crazy, but now I'm all for it!
davidandkasie
16 years ago
here in MS not only can you get the credit from FEMA, but MEMA will pay a good bit too. i know many people who have had a safe room at little to NO cost due to the incentives.
jennymama
Original Author
16 years ago
Owl, I'm so glad to hear that you are ok. I was thinking about you.

I hope they are able to get your power turned back on soon...good thing you have a generator!

Arkansas tornado 3 miles from our new house!

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cork2win

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Arkansas tornado 3 miles from our new house!

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