Tornado shelters are seeing an uptick in business according to Texas vendors

HOUSTON – Tornadoes in Texas.

There have been a few in the Houston area in recent weeks.

One in Katy earlier this month. Then another Sunday night in Trinity County.

“Tornado damage is increasing in every single state right now,” said Rene Sigman, a Houston-based storm attorney with experience in not only hurricanes like Sandy and Harvey but also tornadoes.

There is a concentration on business, focused specifically on protecting families from tornadoes and heavy wind storms.

“We’ve seen an exponential increase year by year,” said Chris Hooser of Lone Star Safe Rooms regarding the number of homeowners looking to make their homes safer.

It’s days like today, less than 24 hours after a massive storm makes headlines, that Jeff Kiser of Sportsman Steel notices an uptick in customers reaching out,.

“The worse the weather gets the more they seem to call. The weather seems to get worse and worse everyday so we see a lot, especially on days like today,” said Steel.

Minutes after KPRC 2 Investigates showed up to their business in Montgomery County, Kiser had us inside one of his tornado shelters that also doubles as a safe, “This is going to protect you from high impact wind events. These are designed to protect you in case the house falls down and around and everything in here is built to keep you and your family safe,” said Kiser.

Hooser made it clear during an interview he expects tornado shelters in homes to be much more common in the future, “I just think that like with anything else and common sense, it’s a good idea and there was a day when dishwashers weren’t in homes and now every house has one. There will be a day when a product like this will be found in more and more homes,” said Hooser.

The typical storm shelters in the Midwest are routinely built into the ground. However, Sigman says going underground is not an option in southeast Texas, “You will have flooding”.The cost for a shelter varies but they start in the thousands with the primary goal of the investment to protect the lives of friends and families.