When storms roll through the Bluegrass State, Kentuckians get resourceful—and one family’s creative storm prep has the internet talking.
As severe weather swept across Kentucky this week, bringing tornadoes and flash floods, two cousins in Muhlenberg County came up with a unique way to ride out the storm: they buried an old minivan and turned it into a DIY storm shelter.
Yes, you read that right.
Ryan Hagan and Buddy Rolley took matters into their own hands ahead of Wednesday’s storms, using a mini excavator they bought off Temu to dig a pit and bury the van. The whole operation took about five and a half hours.
“We just needed something quick to get out of the weather,” Hagan said. “People might think it’s crazy, but it worked.”
And it did work. The cousins hunkered down in the buried van Wednesday night as the storm hit. With tornado warnings across the state and reports of a possible touchdown near Madisonville, the unconventional shelter may have been just what they needed.
Even more surprising? The van still runs. Hagan said they cut the exhaust and used the radio to tune into weather alerts as the storm rolled through.
Their story caught fire on social media after Ryan’s cousin, Erika Cobb, shared photos on TikTok with the caption: “Only in Kentucky. Uncle is tornado ready with his shelter,” paired with the sound of tornado sirens. As of Friday afternoon, the video has racked up more than 1.6 million views and nearly 167,000 likes.
Naturally, the internet had thoughts.
“Country boys can survive,” one commenter declared.
“I mean, being a Kentuckian myself… I think he’s onto something,” wrote another.
While the setup might seem unusual, Hagan says it feels surprisingly secure.
“People underestimate what dirt actually weighs,” he explained. “The whole hood and everything is buried under three feet of dirt—it’s not likely to get ripped out by a tornado.”
The cousins are now planning to reinforce the van door and continue using it as a permanent storm shelter. And if you’re interested, they’re even willing to go into business.
“We’re for hire,” Rolley joked. “We’ll bury a van for anybody.”
Whether you call it redneck ingenuity or Kentucky grit, one thing’s for sure—this family wasn’t about to let a tornado catch them off guard. And thanks to their buried van, they’ve earned a new kind of internet fame, one shovel-full at a time.
