subject: What Is A Safe Room And Storm Shelter? [print this page] With the ever and increasing presence of 24 hour news as well as the apocalyptic messages on many of our cable changes it is no wonder that many folks begin to wonder if they are doing all they can to protect themselves, even in their own home.
Can we make our own homes safe enough to weather nature's worst storms?
Hurricanes are intermittent. We saw a rash of them hit the US in 2004 and 05. We saw, and many experienced, the ravages of these events. Homes, today, are built to withstand some very high winds - however they are designed to meet the medium sized storm events. Frankly, a Category 4 or 5 storm can still destroy a home; even if built to today's standards.
The best and most sure way to avoid the worst of these storms is to not be there when they hit. But, as an extra measure of safety, one can provide a relatively safe space in his own home by creating a storm shelter - otherwise known as a safe room.
A safe room is a small windowless room that has been strengthened to resist the effects of wind pressures and the impact from windborne debris generated by extremely severe weather. These are becoming rather common in Florida and other hurricane state.
A relatively cheap storm shelter can provide you and your family with a sense of security knowing that there is a space in your home that will withstand the forces of the worst hurricanes. These can also act as tornado shelters.
Built with reinforced ceiling, walls and enhanced tie down and fastening systems, these rooms are, to put it mildly, extremely strong. They will have very high impact doors and latches. Basically, these will survive during wind events that would take down most every other structure.
I've designed some of these and my clients have considered them a form of insurance - even if they do not use it.
Safe rooms can be inside the home, actually some part of the home such as a walk-in closet, or they can be separate to the house. The key ingredient, besides being strongly built, is to be structural isolated from the main structure so that any failure in the main area does not place additional force on the safe room.
The best way to do this, above ground, is to build a concrete storm shelter with walls that are reinforced masonry, with all the cells (the holes in the concrete block that you have seen) filled with reinforcing bars and concrete. Generally we form and pour concrete slab roof over top. This can be relatively inexpensive do to if you are building your home - it is easy to work into the structure.
One of my clients had me design his master walk-in closet and bathroom into a safe room. Its ceiling was designed to be concrete and rest just below the bottom chord of the trusses. The trusses could blow off and basically the entire home could collapse yet he and his family would remain safe.
A structural engineer can design these rooms. Also you'll find some excellent information at FEMA: a guideline called FEMA320A "Taking Shelter from the Storm: Building a Safe Room inside your house".
Like insurance, a safe room can offer peace of mind - even if you never really use it. Let's face it, life has its inherent risks. This is a way to effectively scratch one risk right off the list.
