- May 25, 2001
- 22,177
- 16,459
People living in tornado alley parts of the country, is it mandatory to have have a basement in a house?
No. Can't really build basements anyways (well can but it gets outrageously expensive) because of hard red clay soil and rock underground. Again, tornadoes like this are rare. This was an EF5, the highest classification and worst we have had in Oklahoma since 99. Born and raised here don't know how many I have seen, now when the sirens go off I usually just because it knocks my satellite out and find a stream of the game and sit on the couch and watch it. That said, most every city has at least 1 place that is a community shelter like the court house or the high schools or something.
If you're smart like my dad was, you have an above ground safe room built into your home.
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