About Abilene Storm Shelter

What this site is

Abilene Storm Shelter is a lead referral service. We are not a contractor, we do not manufacture shelters and we do not install them. What we do is publish straight answers about storm shelters in the Big Country and connect people who want one with an independent, insured local provider who does the work.

That is stated in the footer of every page on this site, and it is stated here at the top because you should know what you are dealing with before you pick up the phone rather than after.

How it works

• You call or fill in the form. Roughly a minute. The useful details are where you are, how many people the shelter needs to hold, and whether the house is on a slab.
• Your details go to a local installer. One that covers your address and does the kind of work you are asking about — residential, or commercial if that is what you need.
• They come out and quote it. On site, because slab thickness, caliche depth and equipment access cannot be assessed from a desk.
• You deal with them directly from there. The contract, the work and the warranty are between you and the installer.

Why the content on this site is written the way it is

Most storm shelter pages are product brochures. This one tries to be useful even if you never call, which means saying some things a brochure would not:

• The WCTCOG rebate is real, and the paperwork order matters. Half the cost back up to $3,000 — but only if the application is approved before installation. Plenty of people find out afterward. Our rebate page puts the sequence first.
• Abilene has no public storm shelters. The city says so; planning to drive somewhere during a warning is not a plan.
• Underground is not automatically safer. Both types meet the same standards. The real trade-offs are stairs, digging and how fast people get inside.
• “FEMA approved” is not a thing. FEMA does not certify shelter products, and a company using that phrase is telling you something about itself.

Every local fact on this site — storm tracks, dates, wind speeds, program rules, standards — is checked against the National Weather Service, the City of Abilene, Taylor County, the West Central Texas Council of Governments, FEMA, the ICC and the National Storm Shelter Association. Where something could not be verified, it is not on the site.