Erin and Ben Napier prepare for tornado season

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Ben and Erin Napier

HGTV’s “Hometown” stars Erin and Ben Napier moved into her dream house Earlier this year in rural Mississippi, and while production of “Home Town” took a break over the Christmas holiday, the design and renovation couple just couldn’t sit still.

“No renovations in #HGTVHomeTown this week for the Christmas holidays, so what to do in our heated basement at the farm on the coldest day ever?” Start making something nice and not so scary out of it so the girls won’t be afraid to hole up here when the tornadoes come. Day one of this little update and I feel like we’ve made good progress!” Erin wrote on Instagramin a new post featuring Ben and her daughters Helen and Mae playing in their basement.

See below what changes the Napiers made to make their basement more comfortable for all four family members.

Erin & Ben Napier installed swings in their basement

Erin’s post, which has over 65,000 likes on Instagram, features two pictures of her basement. The first shows daughters Helen and Mae playing on swings in the family’s basement, which the couple built right into the ceiling. A green rug sits beneath the girls, giving the illusion of grass. Toys are scattered and Ben is standing to one side with a hammer in hand. The second photo shows the other side of the basement, where two leather sofas sit next to some framed portraits and strings of lights hang from the ceiling.

Fans loved seeing the Napiers make their basement a more convenient place for their daughters in case the family needed to bunker during a tornado, and took the comments to share their own stories.

“Yes – we finally have a one room basement and that tells my 12 year old she won’t be as scared because it’s a regular room! I have really horrible memories of running to the storm pit in that weather to survive the tornadoes!” wrote one fan.

“Smart thinking. Are you the only one with a basement? I live in NJ, I’m under the impression that [southern] Houses don’t have basements,” another fan asked, to which Erin replied, “There are very few here. has to do with the water table and the soil”.

Tornado season peaks in the spring and fall in Mississippi

While the Napiers are fortunate to have a basement to escape to in the event of a tornado, they will likely only need it at certain times of the year.

According to the Clarion LedgerTornado season in Mississippi peaks on average in April, with a second peak usually occurring in November, and the reason for the peaks during these months is due to the La Niña weather pattern, which can cause changes in water temperatures that lead to a higher probability of storms. Overall, Mississippi typically sees between 30 and 100 tornadoes in any given year, but in recent years have seen increaseswith 147 in 2019 (the most since 1950), 115 in 2020 and 127 in 2022 (to December 28).

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