Helter-skelter Where to take shelter
 

The local forecast for this winter season calls for more storms and a greater chance of tornadoes. As my new house doesn’t have a storm shelter or basement, where is the best place to hunker down in the house?

I know about staying away from glass windows and near supporting walls. As many of the houses in TV are similar in design, I thought there might be a recommended location for a particular house design in this planned community. The man who I contacted at the Villages Public Safety department did not know of any such recommendations.

I suggested that he talk to others about creating a plan for tornadoes that would direct Villagers to the safest location in that particular house design. As I am still new, do others know of such a study? Please don’t say that recommendations can’t be made because of liability concerns. Safety should come first.

We live in a 2-bedroom with a pocket door leading to a short hallway. This leads to a guest bedroom and bath. If there is a tornado/high wind, our safety plan is to close the doors to the bedroom, bath, and pocket door. This provides us with a short hallway that is away from the outside wall(bathroom), any windows (guest bedroom), and next to a supporting wall.

That's our plan. Won't know if it's a good plan until we need it. I suppose if the roof goes, we could get sucked out of the house!

Laundry room for most homes in TV

In most designers, it will be the master bedroom closet, and make sure its the one that is not on an exterior wall-been thinking about making our closet into a safe room-will loose a lot of interior room , if we use concrete block or line the walls & overhead with 3/8" steel.

The big tornado in The Villages (Groundhog day 2007) most were sleeping in their bedroom as it hit about 3:00am. There were eight deaths in Lady Lake. Something like 1,000 homes were damaged in The Villages. No deaths in The Villages----46 to hospital.

The fact it was 3:00 am was a blessing. Apparently, asleep in your bed isnt a bad place to be. We were living in the Village of Caroline---two blocks away from our Villa, homes were completely destroyed.

Tornados of this type are very rare.

I remember growing up in Ohio the advice was the southwest corner of your basement. If no basement, the southwest corner of an interior room was the safest place, if there is such a safe(r) place. I haven't the first clue as to why the southwest corner.

No wonder Ron likes him.

See post #7!

I didn’t know about the 2007 tornadoes hitting the Villages. It’s on the Sumter county site -> Tornadoes | Sumter County, FL - Official Website

Thanks for all of the suggestions. As I live in a Holly, I may beef-up the walls of the walk-in closet off of the master bedroom that backs to the interior living/TV room wall. I believe that wall is a load carrying wall.

BTK - 2007 was an unusual year in the El Niño cycle. This coming year is projected to be even more intense in CFL. The more we learn how to protect ourselves the fewer injuries The Villages residents may suffer in the event of a serious weather event. Thanks for pointing this out.

Sorry for such a dumb question but what months are considered tornado season? I guess I shouldn't be so lazy and just google it :024:

Thanks.

Or, maybe I should use the walk-in closet off of bedroom # 2 as two of the walls are cement brick walls that form a corner of the house. I hope some agency/builders in the Villages would offer advice as to the safest place in the house rather than my guessing.

thanks.. like i don't have enough stress tonite.