Franklin County, IA Tornado Risk & Storm Shelter Cost
Franklin County's tornado history, by the numbers
Since 1959, NOAA has logged 29 tornado tracks crossing Franklin County - one about every 2.6 years, which lands it in our Elevated band. Nationally, Franklin County ranks at the 67th percentile for tornado frequency. Within Iowa alone, Franklin County ranks 66 of 99 counties for tornado frequency.
Franklin County's EF4-5 history
Franklin County has 1 violent (EF4-5) tornado on record. FEMA centers its safe-room case on exactly this strength, not on how often a county gets touched - a hardened room is the difference between a code-built house surviving an EF4-5 or not.
What a storm shelter costs near Franklin County
For a Franklin County homeowner, budget $2,890-$13,280 for a shelter or safe room ($7,645 typical) - this pass found no Iowa-specific rebate on top of FEMA's underlying 75% national cost-share program.
The outage nobody plans for
Power loss after a tornado outbreak in Iowa often reaches homes the storm itself never touched. A battery-backup unit covers the outage without the fuel and venting a generator needs.
Read this before you rely on it
This is a county-level figure, not a per-address probability. Franklin County covers about 582 square miles, so a single touch here counts the same as a single touch in a county a fraction of that size. Pre-radar-era records (before the 1990s) are also documented by NOAA as undercounting weaker tornadoes in sparsely-instrumented areas. Franklin County has about 10,024 residents.