While watching the Weather Channel....ears perked up to hear that there's a tornado in Jasper county.

I was just kidding when I mentioned the 'fraidy cat closet made out of cement. Truly hope this is not going to happen to the beautiful GH!

Keeping a lot of the south in t's and p's this morning.

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I only live a couple of hours from there, and my weather radio has gone off several times today as the system moved through.

katie

During the Northridge earthquake, one whole side of our home went of the foundation, but it was fixed. But.. after that, I decided to buy a house on a cement slab.

When we lived in the midwest, the tornado siren went off on a regular basis, but fortunately all was ok.

Near the greenhome, what do they have, tornado's, hurricaines?

Both. Yesterday, we had tornado watches and warning on and off all day. Hurricane season doesn't start for another 7 weeks.

MSC, Hope you have a fraidy cat room. As for hurricanes, I thought Jasper county was far enough away from the shore. This could be a naive notion. Just learning from the experts (people who have been through these storms) while we share on the message board.

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Wow you guys! I always complain about living in AZ because it's so hot and dry and...BROWN! I
should be counting my blessings since we don't have any scary weather.

Trish212, we don't have "fraidy cat rooms". I'm going to take a guess here and say these are probably constructed in or near your basements? Is that possible? We don't have basements. The water table is too high for such things.

For tornadoes, we simply pr ay that we'll be ok and for hurricanes, we evacuate. Due west is usually the best direction, but requires that you go at least 100 miles inland, though Hurricane Hugo taught us that's not always enough. The GH could be affected by a hurricane depending on the path. Think of it this way - hurricanes usually span more than 50 miles wide and they usually travel northwesterly once they make land. If a hurricane came in anywhere between Savannah and Charleston, the GH would feel some effect, though obviously, more so if it came in around Savannah or Hilton Head.

BTW, just to add a little more excitement, it's possible that it also sits along the edge or tail of a fault line. There's a fault line that runs north to south between Charleston and Summerville, though I don't know exactly where it is. It rarely causes us a problem other than the "once in a lifetime" slight shift. We've only had one major earthquake and that was in the 1880's.

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MSC, Oh my! Didn't realize the info you shared concerning hurricanes and fault lines for earthquakes. Look at the one that just happened in the midwest. What a fluke!

A "fraidy cat room" is NOT in a basement. My mother lived in a duplex that was built upon a cement slab. There are small rooms that are reinforced with steel beams and thick cement walls. Some homes in the midwest have started building them as a precaution when basements can NOT be built. We spent a half hour in there one stormy day. It had one lightbulb that was turned on. Fortunately she hadn't filled it with her treasures...just a couple of foldable chairs. Her duplex had some damage to it. We were thankful for this room.

I started noticing how many other duplexes started with the "fraidy cat" rooms as part of the initial structure. Just wondered if the concept had made it to other tornadic areas with no possibilities of basements.

Hope Adele is OK with the storms that were in the area. Adele IS from Georgia, right?

For those who don't have basements, but DO have tornados, this comes FEMA.

pgs. 22 - 26 Provides good information.

So what my mother called her "fraidy cat" room, the govt. refers to it as a Safety room.

I've already figured the walkin closet off the master bedroom would be the safest room in the GH. NO windows, the lowest floor possible, and center of the house.

Trish, for the most part, the tornadoes yesterday were a fluke. It's rare to have tornadic activity, though sometimes it does accompany a hurricane. A safe room wouldn't be practical in a Lowcountry home because a hurricane is of greater concern, but since we know they're coming, we don't stick around to watch. Now, to put that in perspective - I've evacuated twice in the last 10 years for hurricanes. Had I known what Hurricane Hugo was going to be like, I'd have evacuated for that even though in retrospect, I was safe. (I'll never gamble like that again.) Having said all that, can you see why tornadoes would seem like a small concern? I've been "home" for lots of hurricanes and several earthquakes (all minor), but only remember 2 tornadoes in my life and one of those was not here. A safe room isn't a practical expense.

Thanks -- I'm fine.

We did have some weather come thru here -- hit Macon hard. Bibb County is declared a disaster area & is under curfew. One person died in the area. Still have people who can't get to work.

Please keep all of them in your T & P's.

I was on my way back from a trip & so missed it. But, did see some of the effects when driving around Macon.

Got to see SGD the afternoon before. She is making plans for the DH09 quilt -- split rail fence quilt in wine colors. (New thread on DH MB -- go vote.)

I am glad a new quilt isin the making, i can hardly wait to get my fabric. I have never heard of one of those small room s for tornado's and hurricaines.