Viral TikTok Shows DIY Tornado Shelter Made Using Kentucky Ingenuity

A family in Kentucky road out recent severe weather in a DIY storm shelter. How they made it might surprise you!

A Family in Kentucky Used What They Had to Make Their Own Tornado Shelter

When you think of a storm shelter, you likely envision a concrete room buried underground, but a family in Western Kentucky didn't have a concrete room so they made due with what they had on hand to work with... a mini van and a mini excavator from Temu.

They Used a Mini Van + a Mini Excavator They Ordered From Temu

You read that correctly. A family in Muhlenberg County used a mini excavator that they had purchased from the Chinese retail site, Temu to turn a mini van into a DIY storm shelter.

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The Van Was Originally Purchased for Parts

According to the Lexington Harold Leader, it took Ryan Hagan and Buddy Rolley just over five hours to bury the mini van under a mound of dirt. They told the outlet that the van did still run and had been purchased to use for parts.

Massive Outbreak of Tornadoes on April 2nd Let Them Put the Shelter to the Test

When an outbreak of tornadoes stretched across portions of the midwest on Wednesday, April, 2, 2025, including one that may have touched down in nearby Madisonville, the family sought protection from the severe weather inside the van.

Viral TikTok Video Shows DIY Tornado Shelter Made from Mini Van

A now viral video was posted to TikTok by Erika Cobb, who the Harold Leader identifies as Hagan's cousin, shows photos of the buried van.

Most Commenters Were Impressed By The Ingenuity and Creativity

The comments on the video were overwhelmingly supportive. One user said it reminded her of a storm shelter she helped her grandfather build using a van and cement. "Reminds me of the tornado shelter i helped my great grandpa dig. We did put a van down in it and covered it with cement"

Another user called it "pure redneck excellence," while someone else said they had survived a tornado in a similar makeshift shelter as a child, "I survived a tornado in a van shelter as a child."

One Tik Tok user remembers their grandfather who had twelve children, a user wrote, "My gff did this with a old school bus. Big enough to fit the entire family. He had 12 kids w my ggm. He was a MAN"

Some Users Pointed Out the Dangers of Using the Van as a Storm Shelter

However, not all of the comments were so supportive, with several pointing out the dangers of the glass still being intact in the van, and one user who says her dad did something similar but that it ended up getting flooded. "My dad literally did the same thing but it flooded out and now there has been a van filled and buried in the backyard about 20years"

A Follow-Up Tik Tok Video Gives a Much-Requested Tour of Inside the Van

The video has garnered nearly 2-million views, with several people commenting to ask for a "tour" of the inside of the van. Cobb obliged and shared another video showing photos of the inside of the van.

How do you feel about it? Would you feel safe using a buried mini van as a tornado shelter?