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The Kitchen Table

Do You Have A Good Place To Go If A Storm Comes?

16 years ago

Do you have a good place in your home to go to if really bad weather moves in? We always go downstairs as part of the downstairs is like a basement. How about you?

Sue

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Comments (24)

monica_pa Grieves
16 years ago
We have a basement. But, we are in a heavily tree'd neighborhood....big old ones and lots of huge firs, too.
Lots of wind breaks around us.
Kathsgrdn
16 years ago
Not really, we go into the hallway with thick comforters. It has been storming here.
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glenda_al
16 years ago
Living in a condo, my front bathroom is on the ground, so I feel safer there.

Friend disagrees and says I should use the bathroom at the end of the hall, which is in the middle.
monkeymamaof4
16 years ago
We have a full basement that we can go to. Being in Tornado alley, I keep flashlights, blankets, water and snacks down there just in case. So far in 7 years we have only had to go down their once.

Stacie
tammyms
16 years ago
We go the the bath in the middle of the house... lots of walls in between. All the cats go in there as well. :)
gadgets
16 years ago
Full basement here.

Shirley
lydia1959
16 years ago
We have a finished basement. Before the HDTV change we had a tv down there which was nice... we could watch the news. Now our antenna is useless (from what I've heard all the antennas in our area are useless) and I don't want to pay for an extra Directv receiver that we would rarely use.

Sorry... more info that you wanted... but just thinking about it makes me mad. I thought new technology was supposed to make things better? :-)
kacram
16 years ago
no. we have good weather and don't need to worry about it.
Kathsgrdn
16 years ago
Glenda, I agree with your friend. A big problem in tornadoes is projectiles being thrown through your home into you, through the walls. That's the reason they tell you to go into the center of the house.
linda_in_iowa
16 years ago
Yes, I have an unfinished basement where the furnace and laundry are. Lots of extra storage space there. I have lived here 4.5 years and we have only had 2 tornado warnings that I know of and I was working at the hospital both times. If there was a tornado warning when I was home, I am sure I could get Jake to go to the basement with me. Not so sure about the 3 cats. The cats really like the basement and their litter boxes are there, but you just can't herd cats.
minnie_tx
16 years ago
Few Basements in NE Tx. Bathroom with no windows is pretty good to stuff the cat and me in (and visit9ing cats if they are here) have a kit I take in there with me and the cell phone and radios etc.
pekemom
16 years ago
Basement here in Colorado....
schoolhouse_gw
16 years ago
I have a dirt cellar, but I have to go outside and around to the back of the house to get into it. No upstairs entry, altho there used to be one - a big old trap door in the floor of what is now my bedroom.

The room used to be my Uncle's workshop when he lived here,so he just cut a big hole in the floor and put a trap door over it. The trap door is still there but I quit using it years ago because the steps down to the cellar are so steep. Besides, after I remodeled the room last year, I set a huge antique armoire directly over top of the door. I could have sealed it up for good, but I thought perhaps future owners may find it useful again or if anything a curiosity.

Anyhow, to answer your question yes I have a cellar; but I may have to dodge falling tree limbs to get to it!
western_pa_luann
16 years ago
When storms come, we sit out on the kitchen deck and watch!

We don't often get really bad ones....
in the 20+ years we have lived here, we went down to the center of the basement once.
chessey24
16 years ago
not really, we live in a house full of windows and no basement. Fortunately, really bad storm are rare around here.
pattico_gw
16 years ago
No Marilyn we don't have a basement....

But let me tell you my story about when we first bought this barn...(yes it is a barn we converted) Most of the older KTers know this (and this story) but you are newer so I'll share it with you.

I was worried about where we would go if we had a bad storm...Denny, being the smart aleck he is, when I ask him where we would go since the barn didn't have a basement...says..."You can always go to the basement in the outhouse"....I had to think that over for a couple of seconds before I bopped him...!!!!

patti
cherbo
16 years ago
We has a basement. We have gone down there MANY a time during tornado warnings in our area.
sheilajoyce_gw
16 years ago
I worry more about earthquakes than storms, and there's no getting away from an earthquake. Going outside away from falling buildings, glass, wires and trees is best.
marilyn_c
16 years ago
No, I don't worry about storms. The past two hurricanes...one which hit us and the other went on up the coast, I stayed at a friend's house near here, but next time, I will stay home in my old house. It is probably more stable than any house I could go to. I would never evacuate. As for a tornado...they are rare here, but if hit, they come so fast, you don't have much warning. I do have a center hall way though.
majaco
16 years ago
We have a finished basement.My laundry room is down there so I am down there a lot anyway. lol
jannie
16 years ago
My nouse doesn't have a basement,it's a three-story split level. I suppose we could go down in the lowest level. We had a tornado a feww years ago that tore up trees and the sidewalk just a couple blocks from our house.
lisa_fla
16 years ago
No good place to go. If I'm home alone-it would be the laundry room, but if everyones home, 5 people + pets could not fit in there. We went in the coat closet during the hurricanes of 2004 when it got be be real dicey, but that closet is very close to the glass front door, and borders the same room with a giant glass sliding door. Hmmm....our walk in bedroom closet has a bi-fold door that would probably blow right in if the bedroom windows broke in the height of a storm. Maybe the bathrooms-both of the downstairs ones have a window. One is at the corner of the house, the other bathroom shares a wall with the garage. For the majority of the time with the hurricanes we stayed in the guest room with the window boarded up.
lindaohnowga
16 years ago
No basement, just a crawl space under the house, and there is no way I would go under there with all the creepy crawlies. LOL We go to the interior hallway, closing all the doors around us, so it is like being in a closet. We take chairs, pillows, battery lanterns and cell phone with us, plus the dog.
3katz4me
16 years ago
We have a full basement - lots of windows but there is a windowless bathroom that's the tornado room. We've only used it once in 17 years. Actually DH and the cats used it. I was at work at the time. When he heard "the train" he grabbed the cats and went down there. No damage to our house but lost lots of trees. I had a hard time getting home because of flash floods and many down trees and power lines. Finally got home to find DH and a friend outside with chainsaws clearing down trees out of our driveway.

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