By JOSH AULT
6 News Reporter
HARRIMAN (WATE) - Deadly tornadoes again in less than a year in the Birmingham, Alabama area have many people thinking about what they can do to protect their families.
Since 2002, a Roane County company, C. R. Barger & Sons, Inc., has been building storm shelters.
One of their customers is Lisa Scofield of Harriman. "We moved out here in '05, and we have kids," she said. "We don't have a basement so that is why we went ahead and got it."
Scofield purchased a cement partially underground storm shelter from BargerAndSons.
Eric Barger is vice president of the company.
"We offer three types of shelters," he said. "A partial underground that has a capacity of 13 people; a free standing, above-ground shelter that has room for 12 people; and we have a community shelter which will have a capacity for 35 people."
Most of the shelters the company builds are shipped to other areas, including Middle Tennessee and Alabama.
There's a compelling reason Barger got into the business a decade ago. "In 2002, the Mossy Grove tornado hit close to our home so that's when we got serious about getting a shelter designed," Barger explained. "We sold our first one in that community a year later, on November 10, 2003."
BargerAndSons is a precast cement company so it does not take long to build the storm shelters. Once one is ordered, it can be ready to install within 24 hours.
The storm shelters range in price from $3,000 to $35,000.
"We always sell more shelters right after an event so up to six weeks after an event. we will see a spike in sales," Barger said.
The storm shelters built in Roane County are approved by the National Storm Shelter Association. They can withstand an EF-5 tornado, which can produce 250-mile-per-hour winds.
"Oh yes definitely," said Scofield, "It's definitely worth it, yes."
The cement storm shelters weigh 25,000 pounds. Barger says the shelters will last 75 to 100 years.
This shelter has a capacity of 13 people.
Lisa Scofield purchased a cement partially underground storm shelter.
