[eddie gein]

Originally Posted by Curly Q. Bobalink

Personally, I would much rather live in an area that is prone to tornados, vs. living in an area prone to hurricanes. At least with a tornado, you can walk a half-mile and be out of the path of destruction, whereas with a severe hurricane, it may be several days before help gets to you, and power can be out for many weeks. Hurricanes are so deadly because if you go underground to escape the wind, you put yourself at risk of drowning, and if you go up to escape the flooding and the wind gets in, bye, bye.

Interesting anecdote about tornados: In 1990, I volunteered for the tornado aftermath cleanup in Plainfield, IL. Most of the homes in the neighborhood I worked in were built on slabs, a woman and her kids survived by kneeling next to her bathtub, it was the only room in the house that had more than one wall left. The basketball rig they had (four inch pipe) was bent right down to the ground. A 2' diameter tree next to the driveway was stripped bare but mostly still standing. Interestingly, you could tell where the garage, driveway, sidewalks etc. were as they were still there, the walkway up to the house still had Marigolds growing next to it, and they were in perfect condition, amidst all that other devastation. Shows the effect of being near the ground, where the winds are much lower velocity due to the drag of the earth. Getting into a depression or ditch could make the difference between living, and not living, in a tornado.

If I ever move to Oklahoma, I'll definitely build a shelter, that will double as a vault for valuables. Didn't know about the chiggers, though, will have to research those. Not a big fan of bugs. Are they bad around Norman?

Agree with the tornado vs hurricane thing.

Chiggers are no big deal unless you plan on rolling around in the grass a lot or want to walk in high grass with shorts on. So if you go to places with mowed grass, even with shorts on, and don't lay down in the grass, you won't have any problems with chiggers.

We aren't short on bugs here, though.

[Curly Q. Bobalink]

Originally Posted by eddie gein

Agree with the tornado vs hurricane thing.

Chiggers are no big deal unless you plan on rolling around in the grass a lot or want to walk in high grass with shorts on. So if you go to places with mowed grass, even with shorts on, and don't lay down in the grass, you won't have any problems with chiggers.

We aren't short on bugs here, though.

Thanks for the tip. Doing a little more research showed the large number of days that essentially "all" southern states spend with dew points above 65°F (anything over 60° starts becoming uncomfortable for me, even in Northern Illinois I find myself annoyed by high-humidity days). To avoid these, it seems you have to head as far west as Amarillo (or about 2/3 the distance across Kansas and Nebraska, which bypasses their "best" cities). It makes sense that the oldest and most populated cities in each state were founded in the areas with the most reliable sources of water (including rain).

No wonder So Cal is so popular due to the weather, it really is unique in the U.S. The Big Bend region of Texas probably comes in second to SoCal, but again, the lack of water keeps the population low. Thank God for A/C, I guess. Bottom line, choosing a retirement destination with climate as a primary factor is looking less and less possible.

[Redflag71]

Originally Posted by Bert_from_back_East

My father owns and operates a construction company, so I understand why some homes have basements and others do not. However, I still think it is odd that most homes in Oklahoma do not feature basements, panic/safe rooms or storm cellars when the state is squarely situated in "Tornado Alley." In my perspective, that seems like a ripoff, regardless of how cheap your real estate prices are. One would think that at least one of those three features would be standard in most homes, similar to how air conditioning or "mud rooms" are standard features in homes, depending upon where in the country you are located.

This

[chiluvr1228]

Originally Posted by curiousgeorge5

Those things scare me despite not being afraid of hurricanes.

Me too. I live in SW Florida and any house built after 2003 has strong hurricane standards due to Andrew in the early 90's. My current house was built in 1970 and went through Hurricane Irma without any issue. I've since replaced the roof (it was time) and bought impact resistant windows. The worst part for me is not having electricity for up to a week when it's in the 90's with high humidity. But with a hurricane you have days and days to prepare. With a tornado you might only have minutes.

However I do see others point of view that a tornado hits a small area where a hurricane can do more widespread damage. If I lived in an area that got hit a lot by hurricanes I would definitely move, but where I am we've only had 4 hurricanes in 60 years and I've experienced no home damage, just lost all the food in my freezer when the electricity was out for 8 days. That totally sucked but Irma was a very scary hurricane that never seemed to end. People that have whole house generators have no issue with not having electricity and they don't dread a hurricane like people without one.

[Threestep2]

Originally Posted by chiluvr1228

Me too. I live in SW Florida and any house built after 2003 has strong hurricane standards due to Andrew in the early 90's. My current house was built in 1970 and went through Hurricane Irma without any issue. I've since replaced the roof (it was time) and bought impact resistant windows. The worst part for me is not having electricity for up to a week when it's in the 90's with high humidity. But with a hurricane you have days and days to prepare. With a tornado you might only have minutes.

However I do see others point of view that a tornado hits a small area where a hurricane can do more widespread damage. If I lived in an area that got hit a lot by hurricanes I would definitely move, but where I am we've only had 4 hurricanes in 60 years and I've experienced no home damage, just lost all the food in my freezer when the electricity was out for 8 days. That totally sucked but Irma was a very scary hurricane that never seemed to end. People that have whole house generators have no issue with not having electricity and they don't dread a hurricane like people without one.

Homeowner's insurance covered our freezer contents lost during a declared emergency with just a verbal estimate.


You do not need a whole house for electricity. Yes, they are nice. A portable can keep you in a/c comfort and everything going as long as you household your usage based on its output.

[Johnhw2]

. Ive lived in Oklahoma and Texas and the NE in homes with a basement. Tornado's are just not likely to hit an area to warrant al homes in a large area to have added cost of one of these options. What do these run? $5-10k? That is a meaningful increases in cost for a low risk of an event impact

The weather technology is advancing making precise forecasts of very high probably of a tornado in a specific area giving a few minutes warning. I am willing to risk that my safe spot, under a stairwell, will take care of me in the rare event a tornado hits my home.

Living causes cancer... I think the horrific look and sound of a tornado along with the near total destruction of a home hit by a strong one scares people beyond their ability to recognize how rare that happens.

I feel more at risk of being impacted by a car wreck than a tornado even in tornado alley despite technology steps to educe car wrecks.

[Redflag71]

My father owns and operates a construction company, so I understand why some homes have basements and others do not. However, I still think it is odd that most homes in Oklahoma do not feature basements, panic/safe rooms or storm cellars when the state is squarely situated in "Tornado Alley." In my perspective, that seems like a ripoff, regardless of how cheap your real estate prices are. One would think that at least one of those three features would be standard in most homes, similar to how air conditioning or "mud rooms" are standard features in homes, depending upon where in the country you are located.

[StillwaterTownie]

Originally Posted by Redflag71

My father owns and operates a construction company, so I understand why some homes have basements and others do not. However, I still think it is odd that most homes in Oklahoma do not feature basements, panic/safe rooms or storm cellars when the state is squarely situated in "Tornado Alley." In my perspective, that seems like a ripoff, regardless of how cheap your real estate prices are. One would think that at least one of those three features would be standard in most homes, similar to how air conditioning or "mud rooms" are standard features in homes, depending upon where in the country you are located.

Like I said before, I don't think many Oklahomans took tornadoes as a very serious threat to their lives until 1999 when the epic Moore tornado was strong enough to destroy entire homes, leaving only concrete slabs and killed a bunch of people. The same thing happened once again in 2013. As a result, quite a few homes in my neighborhood have a storm shelter of some kind. At least one home built during the 1960s in my neighborhood has a nice basement. It's well finished and isn't dark and creepy. Other than that, I have no idea how many homes in my neighborhood have a basement. I doubt if any of the most recently built homes came with a basement, including my own. I have a closet made of reinforced concrete for tornado shelter.

[StillwaterTownie]

Originally Posted by chiluvr1228

However I do see others point of view that a tornado hits a small area where a hurricane can do more widespread damage. If I lived in an area that got hit a lot by hurricanes I would definitely move, but where I am we've only had 4 hurricanes in 60 years and I've experienced no home damage, just lost all the food in my freezer when the electricity was out for 8 days. That totally sucked but Irma was a very scary hurricane that never seemed to end. People that have whole house generators have no issue with not having electricity and they don't dread a hurricane like people without one.

My gosh, I've lived in Stillwater since 1962 and the electricity was never out for any near as long as for 8 days. The worst ever was from the tornadoes of 1975 and 1990 and even then the power was out for just overnight and well into the afternoon. Fortunately, wasn't in the direct path of the tornadoes, where front porches and roofs started coming off. Power outages from a few ice storms didn't last very long, either.