12-man storm shelter installed at the Riverside Manufactured Home Community in Hamilton
 / Jim Whitfield
HAMILTON, ILL. -- Dave Hunter has owned the Riverside Manufactured Home Community on the edge of Hamilton Illinois since 2004.
And he knows just how much damage a tornado can cause.
But now there's a new addition to his park, it's an 18 thousand pound storm shelter and it's made right in Hannibal, Missouri at the Hannibal Concrete Products Company.
"You can see the videos on You Tube where they shoot OSB right through telephone poles. I mean F-5's. There's a lot of wind, so you want a good door, that's so important and the angle is going to make stuff fly off. They've thought it out," Hunter said.
The shelter can be installed in just a few hours if the dirt work and site preparation is done before the crews arrive on site with the shelter.
On the inside of the unit, it can hold up to 12 people. The walls are five inch thick concrete with half inch rebar. The unit comes in two pieces and the top and the bottom are attached to each other with thick metal plates.
"There's no doubt about it. Everybody needs one of these in their yard. They're out there, tornados. We're all susceptible to them. We've all been lucky our whole life, but that doesn't mean we're always going to be lucky. It's not that much money to be prepared" Hunter said.
Hunter said likes the idea of having this type of shelter in his park. He hopes to have other units installed for the residents in the coming months. He says an investment of about $3,000 is well worth the peace of mind a shelter like this can provide to area residents.
"You may think you're safe in a site built home, anybody above ground has to worry. F-5's are deadly and this is the answer," Hunter said.