Tornado or Hurricane Safe Rooms
Taking Shelter from the Storm
Where do you need to build a safe room inside your home?
- A safe room should be within 60 seconds from your bedroom
- You should not need to go outside to access your safe room
- Consider a location that will not flood during a storm
- Conveniently located in case of a home invasion
- Consider a bump-out finished to match the exterior
- Steel safe rooms bolted to the garage slab are only as good as the anchor bolts
The most important consideration is MASS. A reinforced concrete six-sided box represents lots of mass. FEMA has worked with the Wind Engineering Research Center at Texas Tech University and a design team of individuals from around the country to develop the best design criteria for a safe room construction.
We can help you modify an existing home or provide design ideas for new home construction to build a safe/storm room for you and your family.
The above detail illustrates a typical safe room construction that complies with the FEMA requirements and has passed the missile (debris) launch test. Flying debris (referred to as windborne missiles) can hit a building with enough force to penetrate walls. Texas Tech University developed a missile launcher that can fire an 8-foot long 2x4 with a speed to 100 mph to test different types of constrctuion materials. The test proved that a 6-inch thick concrete reinforced room or 8-inch CMU reinforced block wall provides the required protection.