Anyone else get caught up in that horrible weather yesterday in Central Texas?  We were very fortunate that the worst of the storm turned off before it hit our town, we were given about 20 minutes to get to shelter. We opened gates to the barn and runs to let horses go and we jumped in the pickup to head into town to get in a shelter at the diner my daughter works at. Scary stuff, way too close for comfort.  The atmosphere feels different when there's a tornado on the ground.  It's a frightening experience. My husband and my youngest son met us at the diner as they were coming in from driving all day. We never had to get into the actual shelter but it was definitely a scary moment.  I wasn't sure what I was gonna go home to. We let the dogs into the house and locked up our chickens on their coops. When we got home, my horses were all inside the barn in the middle stall together.  Surprised me they didn't run for open pastures. Guess they knew better because the hail was pretty significant.  They were visibility shaken up but totally fine and much to my surprise very cooperative when we went to get them out and put up. They stayed calm and waited for us to move them. No bolting or running out. They were waiting on us to tell them what to do. Surrounding towns weren't so fortunate... buildings, barns and houses were leveled but I'm pretty certain no one was killed,  which is a blessing... I haven't heard of any fatalities. I had water up to my ankles walking to our truck from the diner. It was definitely a crazy evening. I'll post a photo... its not mine but it was taken by someone in Granger which is 1 town over from us. They suffered some pretty significant damage to their town. Our town is taking up water, food, blankets, feed , trucks and trailers to help what we can. so thankful for our local diner taking us in and thankful our little town was spared. We did have confirmation of a funnel cloud trying its best to touch down in our town but it thankfully never made it. 

OH MY GOODNESS!!! 

Glad that you all are safe and sound.  I didn't realize that the storms were that close to you. 

Glad you were safe. Normal weather for where I'm at. My town and all the surrounding towns have been hit by a tornado since I've been alive. Some of them have been hit multiple times. And we rarely go in shelter unless we hear it coming or see it close to us. Sirens go off and we run outside to watch, midwestern thing I suppose lol.  They still creep me out though, as common as it is here I've never gotten used to them. We had 4 warned cells within 15 miles of us in December when I was stuck at the barn with a cecal impaction colic. I told the vet I swear if we've tubed her all day and she dies in a **** tornado tonight, I'm going to kill someone lol.

Texas is getting their butt whooped between that and the fires, hope residents can get back on their feet quickly 

We were watching on the Weather Channel.  Glad you are ok - looked tough in Texas!

I don't think I'd ever get use to those sirens. I will say those storm chasers are my new heros .. those folks are bad to the bone and crazy! I was passed by a storm chaser and I thought I was driving fast to get to the shelter.  Just something comforting about those folks... we are trying desperately to get away and they are heading into it to help save lives by getting visuals. We discussed putting in a storm shelter last night. It's pretty rare around here but certainly would be nice to have the option if the need arises. 

There's a lot of people around that have buried shipping containers as shelters. They cut a hatch into the top with an access above ground. Can also create one like a hill that can be walked into through the doors. I have friends trying to do that strom shelter concept with tie stalls for their horses. They're wanting theirs underground where they can just walk down into it with the horses. They'd be a relatively inexpensive concept, mostly just the excavation expense. You can get the containers for $400-500. I'm thinking about doing it in the future if I change housing 

Here's the funnel ... this is right in my town not far from us. 

And this is the extent of the damage at my place lol! That tree actually broke before the bad stuff got here because the winds were blowing about 45mph all morning and afternoon leading up to it. Glad it didn't fall on our fence at least. I've got a few trash can lids that found a new zip code I'm sure.

That's EXACTLY what my husband said he wanted to do last night because I was mostly frantic about my horses being left out to fend for themselves.  His cousins own a few gravel and trucking businesses and they have all the heavy equipment we'd need to dig. I'm going to begin researching this! I'd feel so much better knowing all my animals could be brought to safety as well. We have a good chunk of land on the side of our home in between the house and barn that's wide open would be a great spot for such a thing. 

How are the BHW members in and around New Orleans??? That looked really bad!

Saw a video of a red Chevy 3/4 truck in TX from that storm. It was piced up, flipped several times and drug across a hiway. HOWEVER........ storm flipped it back up and driver drove off. Kudos to the makers of that truck!!! 

Its either a GMC or Chevy, and someone on tiktok added the old Chevy, like a rock song to it. Its great 

you're not going to find a container anywhere for $400-500

they are worth more than that as scrap. 

Ok. I just bought 2 for work last month for $1,100 for both including delivery. We get quite a few from the same source at this price, they're only 20' though. A 40' does cost us about $1,000, but we rarely buy those.

Right 

There are 3 big containers that belong to my inlaws on this property already. I know they got them many many years ago ... maybe 10-15yrs. If I could get them cleaned out with all the hoarder stuff in them, I'd have them to use for that. But I'd probably have better luck just buying one at this point ... however much they are nowadays. It's a good idea as long as they'd hold up in that situation.  I'm trying to picture how this would be set up.. like buried completely underground. I've seen the regular tornado shelters with stairs leading down. I thought I read somewhere that you needed to be cautious about the roof collapsing under heavy dirt and heavy rain? 

They're probably $4-5k new I would think, we don't buy new ones. And I'm not sure about the roof situation. You could probably put field tile on top and just cover enough with dirt and make a crown in the center to encourage water to drain away. You could also build out of concrete if you prefer, can do that above or below ground. As far as getting in, I'd think you'd do it like a bunker. Except without it being above ground, you have a ramp down and just retaining walls on the sides like a driveway or something