Q:My wife says there are no basements here because there are no tornadoes, so we don’t need a place to hide. I say it’s because the ground is too hard. Who’s right?
A: First of all, your question is flawed by asserting there are no basements around here. Granted, there aren’t many, but there are some, especially in older homes. They’re relatively plentiful in the Encanto neighborhood of Phoenix and in some scattered pockets of pre-World War II homes around the Valley.
They’re not the pine-paneled rumpus-room basements you recall from your split level back in Moline, Ill., but they’re basements nonetheless.
And, as we shall see, basements have made somewhat of a comeback in recent years in upper-end new housing.
But the vast majority of Phoenix-area houses are squatting on concrete slabs, meaning that if we ever really did have a tornado, your best bet would be a merciful God.
