From burying vans and septic tanks to luxury bunkers: How Americans are sheltering from extreme weather

As billion-dollar disasters surge across the U.S., Americans are finding creative — and sometimes unconventional — ways to ride out floods, tornadoes, and storms.

When severe weather comes knocking, the question isn’t if you’re ready — it’s how.

From suburban backyards in Missouri to multimillion-dollar estates in coastal Florida, Americans are getting creative about sheltering from storms. Some are building bunkers from septic tanks. Others are raising mansions above the storm surge line. Different tools, same goal: survival.

There’s a reason for the urgency. According to NOAA’s 2024 Billion-Dollar Disaster report, last year brought 27 individual weather and climate disasters to the U.S., each costing over $1 billion. That includes six major tornado outbreaks, five tropical cyclones and 11 severe weather events that produced hail, flooding and destruction across the country. The price tag? Over $182 billion in damages and 568 lives lost — making 2024 the fourth-costliest disaster year on record, trailing 2017 ($395.9 billion), 2005 ($268.5 billion) and 2022 ($183.6 billion). 

For Patrina Coverdell of central Missouri, it started with worry — and a septic tank.

“We’d been racking our brains for years trying to figure out how to build an affordable but safe shelter,” she said. So she and a friend buried a $900 septic tank in her backyard. Reinforced with wood beams and equipped with Wi-Fi and a port-a-potty, the tank can hold four adults and two kids. She’s used it three times this year already. During a tornado, her son’s home was destroyed. Hers wasn’t.

“You think of what you have to protect,” Coverdell said. “For me, that’s my grandkids.”

In Dyer County, Tennessee, brothers Justin and Burton Humphreys built a makeshift levee around their mother’s home using dirt, fencing and scrap material. After a foot of rain inundated their property, their improvised wall held the floodwaters back.

“We had the want-to, and we had the know-how,” Justin said. “So we made it happen.”

In a viral TikTok from Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, two friends buried an old van to create their own underground storm shelter. With traditional shelters costing between $3,000 and $20,000, these DIY approaches are gaining traction in communities that face frequent threats but lack the resources for high-end solutions.

Not all solutions involve digging or dirt. In Prospect, Kentucky, restaurant owner Andrew Masterson intentionally flooded his business with clean water to keep out the Ohio River’s muddy surge. Ultimately, floodwaters rose too high and some muddy water got inside, but it's that kind of innovative thinking that is needed as climate change makes extreme weather more frequent, less predictable and increasingly difficult to defend against with conventional methods.

While traditional shelters can cost thousands of dollars, these unconventional efforts reflect a growing reality: Extreme weather is outpacing the systems designed to protect people — especially those with limited resources.

As disasters grow more frequent and costly, insurance is becoming harder to get — and afford. Several major insurers have pulled back from markets in states like California, Colorado, Florida and Louisiana, citing mounting losses. In many states, double-digit premium increases, reduced coverage and higher deductibles are now the norm. For lower-income homeowners and renters, these shifts are especially devastating.

Most homes in the U.S. were built under codes that didn’t account for today’s weather extremes. Many can be upgraded — but risk mitigation is not one-size-fits-all, and those most vulnerable often lack the financial flexibility to make even modest improvements.

Meanwhile, those with greater resources are investing in advanced protection. A recent Wall Street Journal report highlighted how the ultra-wealthy are taking their own approach — investing in storm-hardened luxury homes in high-risk zones. From Palm Beach to Paradise Valley, elite buyers are spending tens or even hundreds of millions to fortify oceanfront and desert homes.

With the financial means to prepare for extreme weather, some wealthy homeowners are investing in high-end protection: hurricane-rated construction, fire-resistant materials, elevated foundations, private firefighting crews and advanced flood barriers. These upgrades offer security and peace of mind — at a cost many can’t match.

Whether burying a van or building a fortress, one thing is clear: More Americans are taking action with creativity, urgency and whatever tools they can find to protect what matters most as extreme weather becomes a fact of life.

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