For all those who were asking:Why Don't More Homes in Oklahoma Have Basements?

[LeftInTX]

19. Lots of people have tornado shelters

They are relatively cost effective and don't require the same maintenance as basements.

Basements up north are not without a lot of work. My grandparents in Wisconsin lived in a house constructed in around 1900. That basement was the most gawd awful place. It was full of mold and stunk to high heaven. I was scared to go down there. When I was in college I lived in an old house and the basement was a creepy dirt floor thing which was a great critter habitat.

Years later, my parents' house in Wisconsin had waterproofing in the basement which is pretty much required for all modern basements everywhere.

They also built vacation home way up in northern Wisconsin, which only has a crawlspace and no finished basement. If there's a tornado they can go into the crawlspace. They didn't want a basement due to the hassles and relatively low water table along the lake shore.

I believe storm cellars are traditionally popular in the south because they were often used to store produce prior to refrigeration. There are some old abandoned homesteads near me with detached root cellars.