Trees fell on the house today

allorangeallthetime52®

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Re: Very sorry to hear that. My house is surrounded by large trees and...

May 9, 2024, 5:47 AM

I've mentioned on here before how terrified I am of bad storms, and I believe that it comes from when a Tornado ripped through our property when I was 8 or 9 years old. Bad storms and snakes are about the only things on this earth that I truly fear. When I bought my house and property where I've been living for 22 years now. But once all the paperwork was done and my loan was approved, before me and my wife moved in, I took my chainsaw and I cut every tree that was big enough to damage anything in the yard, or any that could hit my house if a storm blew in down.

If all that didn't make me feel safe, I had a friend of mine to bring his backhoe over to dig a hole in my backyard big enough to put one of those 800 gallon totes that I framed in with treaded lumber, we pulled it in the hole with about 6 inches of sticking out the hole and backfilled it in. I put a 5 gallon a minute water pump at the bottom, then I put a later in the tote so we can get in, then I put a pretty good sealed door on top. If the weather man says we have tornado warning in my area, we take our weather radio and in that tote we go until there is no more threat. Like I said, I'm absolutely terrified of bad storms and tornado's. The tote don't have that much room inside for more than two lawn chairs, a few gallon of water, and we'll take a snack with us whenever we feel we should get in our safe place. After 10 years of being in the ground, the sealer we put on the outside walls must still be working really good bc the walls still feel really solid when I check them out, but I do have two 2X4's cut to length for extra bracing just in case, I have them laying down on the floor to keep us from bumping our heads on them until they're ever needed.

The way that storms seem to be getting worse than they were years ago, if I was young enough to have a house built, it would be built with a storm safe cellar in it, and that's what I would advise young people that are having a house built to do, have a storm safe cellar added in with your build. The extra money is well worth saving you and your family. I would rather have it and never need it, than need it and don't have it!!!