Norman Woman's Storm Shelter Floated Above Ground After Severe Storm

A Norman woman's storm shelter floated up out of the ground in her backyard.

She said she thought she got a deal on it when she had it installed a year ago. She said the man who put it in charged her $700 less than the other bids.

But when she and her two sons started to move to the storm shelter during Wednesday's storms, she noticed the shelter had become dislodged, and looked unstable. By Thursday, the shelter was literally floating on water.

“That could have been my children in there,” she said. “Something could have happened.”

The owner of the company that installed the shelter told News 9 Thursday he would “make it right.”

Lisa Ingram of FlatSafe Tornado Shelters in Yukon told News 9 the key to building a below ground shelter is to dig a hole that's much wider, deeper, and longer than necessary.

“So that we can back fill around the shelter with ready mix concrete. The point of the concrete number one is to counteract floatation or buoyancy, but number two it leaves your foundation solid,” said Ingram.