Construction business aims to prepare those for storm season
One of the storm shelters that Rhodes Construction helped install at a resident’s house on County Line Rd. in Madison. (RECORD PHOTO/ALDO AMATO)
By Aldo Amato
Staff Reporter
MADISON – As the turbulent storm season approaches, one Madison business looks to help its residents prepare in case of tornado outbreaks.
Rhodes Construction, located in the Madison Office Center on Madison Blvd. has specialized in equipping new and built homes with tornado and storm shelters for nearly 20 years.
Rhodes owner, Rhodes Russler, said that his storm shelter service grew as requests for them piled up when working on new custom-built homes.
“It kind of grew to a point now where we keep a crew installing storm shelters almost every week,” he said.
Russler said that his service distribution area covers Madison, Limestone and Morgan counties but that he generally see’s the requests for storm shelters from County Line Rd. in Madison to the northern section of Madison County.
“We have installed many shelters throughout the northwest part of Madison,” he said. “That is where a lot of the storms on April 27, 2011 hit and many residents have requested instillation in those areas.”
Russler said that after the tornado outbreak in the spring of 2011, business spiked and he saw a steady increase in shelter requests.
“There were definitely people who wanted to be prepared for the next time severe weather hit,” he said. “But I would say it was steady and not too overwhelming because we had to wait for many homeowners to rebuild.”
There was even an instance where Russler said that one of his installers was finishing up work on a shelter when a tornado hit the area where he was installing it. The installer and the homeowners hid safely inside the shelter however the home was a total loss.
Some of the shelters that Rhodes Construction installs run around $5,000 but Russler said that people should not fear the prices because the importance of safety, no matter where ones home is, is extremely valuable.
“Severe weather can strike anywhere,” he said. “No matter if you’re located in rural or urban areas. It is important to be prepared and that is what we want to help homeowners be.”
