Tornade Update: We've Got a Storm Shelter!

If you've been following my blog for a while, you are aware that our house was in the path of the Copeville Tornado, which ripped through our neighborhood the day after Christmas just a few months ago. It was the same night that tornadoes tore through Rowlett, Garland, Farmersville, Blue Ridge, and some other Dallas area suburbs. We were lucky that we received a minimal amount of damage while some of our neighbors lost everything, and two of them lost their lives.  You can read our story here. I've been posting updates to let everyone know how the clean up is going, etc., and more than one of them mentioned that we would definitely be getting a storm shelter.  Well, we did, on my birthday, about a month ago, and on this rainy Sunday afternoon, I'm very relieved to have it installed.

Our new storm shelter beneath the stairs.

We looked at several options for our storm shelter, but ultimately we decided to go with Armored Closet.  Even though the model we went with was a little more expensive than what we had originally considered, it is installed in an existing closet under our stairs, so we don't have to go outside in a storm to reach it.  We can also use it for other things. For example, in the event of a home invasion, nobody is getting in this safe room! While most of the closet is now unusable, we got a little door installed in the back so that we can still use the back portion of the closet as storage. And the fact that it is also under the stairs makes me feel even more safe.

It didn't take too long for the nice folks from Armored Closet to install the shelter.  If they didn't have to turn around our closet door (which had been installed backwards by the builder) it would have probably only taken about two or three hours. They came in, did some drilling into the concrete and assembled the steel room pretty quickly and cleaned up nicely after themselves. You  can read about the high quality materials they use and how they install their closets here.

Great service, great products from Armored Closet

Armored Closets has lots of options starting at just under $4000 and installation is free.  Their options, which you can look at here, can fit up to 26 people, which is pretty impressive.

If you live in the Dallas area and you are considering a storm shelter (which you really should!) please consider Armored Closet.  They have great products, their extremely nice and easy to work with, and they do offer a referral discount.  If you decide to go with them, please tell them Amy and Brian Van Horn sent you!

The outside door of our storm shelter. Nothing's getting in here!

We have had a few really bad hail storms here lately. Luckily, we've had no damage at our house, but some of our friends have not been so lucky.  Several houses in the nearby town of Wylie have holes in their roofs, shattered car windshields, and people with injuries from softball size hail.  It's raining here today, but I think it should be relatively calm,  That is life in North Texas in the spring--and the fall. Lots of storms and rain! I feel a lot better about it now that we have a tornado shelter, though.  I pray that we never have to use it, but if we ever find ourselves in a situation like the one we faced on December 26, you can bet all four of us will be in the shelter with our fur babies.

We are expecting about five inches of rain in the next few days. Hopefully, no twisters!

Do you have a storm shelter? Is it inside or outside? Have you ever had to use it? Let me know in the comments.