any brick layers or masonry guys out there?

[em2nought]

Here's somebody that does what I was thinking http://www.missouristormshelters.com/shelters-step-deck.aspx

Except I was thinking you probably wouldn't go in the ground due to the water table so just a short little sit down or lay down shelter.

[Wolferz]

em2nought has a really good idea
Considering the severity of storms in that part of the country and the free standing foundation of the building.

Can you say; "my name is Dorothy and my dog is Toto?"

thanks em2nought but in heavy or steady all day rains I get inch of water above ground regularly but drainage is good so its gone as soon as the rain stops

water table is roughly 18-24" below ground so the only "feasible" shelter is the house not to mention im at sea level and would be below it in hurricanes

anything under ground in Louisiana becomes filled with water no matter how many pumps or how well its sealed so that fancy shelter would just become an underground swimming pool or water storage tank

the house is sitting on a continuous chain wall foundation and piers built as one unit and all tied in and connected together with rebar. the house itself is strapped, banded and tied to the piers so its not going anywhere.

I have been through many storms and trust me, there is more to fear from flooding and no power "for who knows how long" in hurricanes then the wind of the hurricane itself. unless you surrounded by trees that is lol.

so the consensus is that the above ground footer is a bad/dumb idea then, guess i'll be cutting the slab and pouring footers then.

I was thinking more in terms of the footer thickness preventing sagging and cracking of the bricks rather then the shear weight of whats sitting on it cracking the slabs.

looks like its time to pour a 12" footer so i'll need 5 rows of block instead of 4

@ wolferz - I understand, we all have stuff to deal with, hopefully you can look it over in a few days and give me your opinions on the best design to go with. I want light weight but strong and looks are secondary, you can cover anything with stucco and pretty it up after the fact. I sent a new design picture with a few small changes to reflect what we talked about here.

let me know if I am choosing the best materials and if you think I should put less rebar or none at all in the vertical walls of the landings? I want to keep material costs low but mainly I want to avoid as much weight as I can so I don't want a monolith so heavy it sinks by its own weight. I just want what I "need" and avoid overbuilding this thing

I was even wondering about filling the verticals with foam rather then concrete or simply using 16x8x4 blocks stacked on end like bricks and not having any voids to fill. then again maybe I could build forms to just pour solid 4" wide landing walls all at once as one piece, whatever does the job with the least amount of weight load on the ground so it doesn't sink over the years