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Tornado Shelters-The “3 ½” Concrete Slab Issue

The 3 ½” concrete slab issue is one that I have attempted to distance myself from because I spoke against it in the initial ICC-500 code committee and got resoundingly shot down by the rest of the group. Please allow me to explain the issue as I originally saw it and now that I know more, how it stands now.

Section 309.1.2.1 of the 2008 edition of the ICC-500 states”

Slabs on grade shall be designed for applicable loads in accordance with Section 301. Where a slab on grade is being used to resist loads, the minimum thickness shall be 3 ½ inches (88.9 mm) and the minimum steel reinforcement for slabs on grade resisting forces on the storm shelter shall be 6×6-W1.4 by W1.4 or No. 4 bars, 18 inches on center in either direction.

I was opposed to this language for one reason and one reason only. I knew when people (i.e. designers, engineers, manufacturers) read this, they believe that a 3 ½” slab will work for any type of shelter as long as it has the reinforcing indicated without the need to have it engineered. Low and behold, we have small residential shelters made of steel, wood, and other composite materials that are light weight being bolted to existing concrete slabs without doing any design work to confirm that the 3 ½” slab will work as required by the first sentence of the paragraph noted above! I knew it would happen!! I knew it!

I know of four competent, practicing structural engineers that have looked at this very issue and not a one of them could engineer a 3 ½” slab to work with these light weight shelters that experience the full wind load; NOT ONE!!! Why? BECAUSE IT DOESN’T WORK!!! The wind forces attempt to overturn these light weight shelters but doesn’t have enough “lead in its ass” to resist it so it depends on the dead weight of the concrete slab to resist the force. Problem is, the 3 ½” concrete slab doesn’t have enough “lead in ITS ass” to resist the force either!

With that said, there are exception to every rule. If you have one of the heavier shelters, i.e. fully reinforced masonry, and/or concrete, there may be enough dead weight in the walls and roof of the shelter to resist the overturning force. There are stipulations to this in the ICC-500, and only engineering will determine this. Shelters that are located in basements and do not see the full wind load may also be an exception, but again, this needs to be verified!

The latest version of the ICC-500 which has yet to be released has reworded this paragraph to hopefully emphasize the need for engineering these slabs. The problem is going to be, will pre-fab shelter manufacturers pick up on this and comply? Do you think Home Depot which sells shelters on the internet is going to make sure that you have an engineered slab on which to install your newly purchased shelter? I hardly doubt it!

So when you see manufactured shelters that say they can be bolted to an existing slab without any type of engineered verification, STAY AWAY! It is a must that there is enough dead load to keep the shelter from overturning, where ever that dead load comes from. It could be footings/foundations, thick floor slab (like 2’ thick), heavy walls, and/or roof structure. But bolting to an existing slab that is 3 ½” thick, or 4” thick is not going to cut it! You probably did not purchase a tornado shelter, you purchased a bad carnival ride! And one that could kill or serious injure you and your family.

Be careful out there!

Post by Corey Schultz, AIA, LEED BD+C

Tornado Shelters – Peer Reviews

Being an architect, I can say that for some reason it is in our nature, the architectural community, never to turn work down unless, we feel that it is WAY over our heads to provide services on a particular project UNLESS we are willing to find a consultant that can help us through…..on everything except tornado shelters. I just don’t get it! It appears that a majority, not all, but a majority feel that shelters are nothing more than adding a little more rebar in the walls, putting those shutter “thingies” over the windows, installing vault doors, and putting concrete or dirt on the roof. “I’m done! Problem solved!” Unfortunately, it is well beyond those issues, WELL BEYOND!

And because of these reasons, the ICC-500 and the FEMA 361 call for peer reviews as a shelter/safe room requirement for both architectural (coming in the next editions) and structural (current requirement) for any shelter that protects more than 50 occupants. It is a second set of eyes to help assure that the end users of that shelter are safe in a tornadic event. THAT’S IT!!!

So, if I were a designer that had never done a shelter but just could not turn down the project due to lack of experience, it would be a REALLY good idea for that designer to get their shelter peer reviewed by someone that has some shelter experience. BETTER YET, put them on the design team so that intelligent decisions can be made through out the process! OMG, what a novel idea? OR if I were an experienced shelter/safe room designer, wouldn’t the second set of eyes be a good idea anyway? You need to avoid the temptation of hiring your buddy at another firm that knows nothing about shelter design, to review your shelters and you’ll review his. The “scratch mine/scratch yours” scenario. That’s a lose/lose situation! You may save a little money but your neck just become as long as a giraffe’s! AND a big target for a law suit should something go wrong!

I have had the opportunity to conduct peer reviews for six other architects in the past couple of years, which has amounted to 14 different tornado shelter/safe room. And out of all 14 projects, not a single one of them were without several issues. These are what I would consider really good architectural firms and half of them were experienced shelter designers! And that is only on the architectural side of things. Not sure where they stood on the structural reviews.

Peer reviews are important. Peer reviews are something that should not be left until the end of the construction document phase. Why? How many architects out there have enough working budget to redo the project if the shelter was completely botched? Not many that I know. So then what happens? Poor decision making? YES! Justifying design mistakes? YES! And who knows what else! Peer reviews should start at the schematic design level and continue throughout the design process.

So check your egos at the door and find someone to watch over your shoulder. Someone’s life and/or your livelihood as an architect/engineer could depend on it!!!

Be careful out there!

Post by Corey Schultz, AIA, LEED AP BD+C

Tornado Shelters – Arkansas Tornado Shelter Door Failure

On April 27, 2014, in the state of Arkansas, an EF-4 tornado ravaged the communities of Vilonia and Mayflower killing a total of 12 individuals. One of those deaths, a woman, was killed and her husband seriously injured as they sought refuge in an above ground shelter that the husband had built for the couple’s home. It was a small masonry shelter with a hollow metal door and frame. Unfortunately, the door failed, the woman was killed and her husband seriously injured while the two of them were bracing the door all the while, the rest of the shelter performed the way it was intended. A true tragedy. My heart goes out to the woman and her family. This is not the outcome the couple had planned.

The door and frame were analyzed at Texas Tech University Wind Science Lab in Lubbock, Texas. The goal was to find out why the door failed and the study found just what the problems were with the door system. This is what the study found:

The door and frame were hollow metal with (3) residential grade dead bolts and (3) standard duty hinges.
The frame was not properly anchored to the masonry walls, as a matter of fact, there was no anchorage at all, the cavity of the frame was filled with mortar and the adhesion between the mortar and the masonry was the only thing holding the door in the opening. That is why the couple was attempting to brace the door because it was shaking in the opening.
The door, frame, and hardware were not designed or constructed to withstand tornadic wind forces. The door was apparently struck by a piece of OSB or plywood in the center of the door, bending it and destroying the center dead bolt and the lock set. Further, the top dead bolt failed and the door hinges and hinge screws were also damaged. This all happened almost simultaneously while the couple was pushing against the door.

These three issues lead to this tragedy. Unfortunately, from my understanding, the gentlemen THOUGHT he was being sold a tornado resistant door but in the end that was not the case. Along with the fact that the door was not anchored properly.

As I have said before, the regulations on tornado shelters to date has been minimal. It is like the Wild West out there and the buyer MUST BEWARE!!! Regardless if you’re buying a pre-manufactured shelter/safe room, doing a DIY shelter/safe room, or hiring a design team to design/engineer your shelter/safe room, DO YOUR HOMEWORK! Make sure the proper materials are being purchased/utilized and installed properly. Make sure your designer knows what they are doing. THIS IS AN EXTREMELY COMPLICATED DESIGN/CONSTRUCTION PROBLEM! Not everyone knows how to deal with them and what pitfalls to avoid.

I can tell you right now that one should expect to pay quite a bit more for a tornado resistant engineered/constructed door system than your run of the mill metal door. How much more? Maybe four to six times as much! Why are they so much? Because they are specially designed and constructed for two purposes, 1) to let you in and out of the shelter/safe room, and 2) keep you from perishing in a tornadic even! If you are paying $400 for the door, YOU’VE BOUGHT THE WRONG DOOR! These are not items that you typically find at your local lumber yard. These are special order items. You have to make sure that you are getting and paying for what you need to protect yourself, your family, and friends, whatever the case may be. Because if you stop at the door, you may have just wasted all the rest of the money you put into the shelter/safe room.

The shelter/safe room is only going to be as good as its weakest link. The problem is that weakest link is going to expose itself at the worst possible moment just as it did for the couple in Arkansas. Don’t let the same happen to you.

Be careful out there!

Post by Corey Schultz, AIA, LEED AP BD+C

Tornado Shelters – “FEMA Approved”?..I think not!

I have been working with FEMA in some way, shape, or form since 1999 when I volunteered to design the first tornado shelter/safe room in the country to meet 250 mph wind criteria. This was pre-FEMA 361 era when we didn’t even have doors that had been tested for tornadic winds! It was quite a challenge but was well worth the time and effort. Luckily, FEMA made sure that I had support during this design; support from the likes of Texas Tech University, Clemson University, Greenhorne & O’mara engineers, and FEMA themselves. In the end, it was a successful project considering what we had to work with. Since then, I have worked closely with FEMA and their consultants trying to make things better with tornado shelter/safe room design and construction.

One thing that I have learned during the past 15 years is FEMA does NOT approve, certify, or even recommend designers or product manufacturers….PERIOD! It is against their policy to do such a thing. Don’t believe me? Go to FEMA.gov (http://www.fema.gov/safe-rooms/frequently-asked-questions-tornado/hurricane-safe-rooms#Q10) and look it up yourself! So, when you are looking for a tornado shelter/safe room designer, or a tornado resistant product and their literature states “FEMA Approved”, or “FEMA Certified”, or “FEMA Recommended”, this should throw up a red flag to you. They are not telling you the truth about FEMA and that should make you ask “What else are they not being truthful about?” The designers, designs, or products may be “FEMA COMPLIANT” meaning they meet FEMA guidelines and requirements but rest assured they are NOT “FEMA Approved/Certified/Recommended”.

FEMA has done a pretty good job at contacting manufacturers and product suppliers that make the false claims but they cannot catch them all! Purchasing anything relative to tornado shelter/safe rooms whether it be architectural services, engineering services, pre-manufactured shelter/safe rooms, or shelter/safe room components, it is a “buyer beware” market, almost to the level of the Wild West. There are so many people out there that claim to be “experts”, claim to be “approved”, you need to check there credentials, check their references! You can easily spend as much money on something that is wrong as you can on something that is right. And having something wrong in the middle of a tornado is not a good position to be in. Shelter/safe room problems will rear their ugly heads at the EXACT moment that you need your shelter/safe room the most.

IF FEMA ever changes their policy, I will be the first in line to get “Approved”!

Be careful out there!

Post by Corey Schultz, AIA, LEED AP BD+C

Tornado Shelters – Retrofitting Existing Buildings into Shelters

When I first started working with FEMA after the 1999 tornado outbreak that hit Oklahoma and Kansas, it was amazing the things that people were calling “tornado shelters”. My eyes were opened when a FEMA representative showed me a picture of a “shelter” that consisted of this huge, salvaged steam boiler that some genius gutted, cut a hole in the side, welded on a couple of hinges to create an access door and called it a shelter. Now mind you, the boiler was cylinder shaped as you would imagine. This “genius” did NOT anchor this shelter to the ground! In an event, this would not be a shelter, at that point, it is a BAD, BAD carnival ride! Therein lies the basis for the FEMA P-361, ICC-500, and the National Storm Shelter Association (NSSA). It was to give guidance to people to create actual tornado safe rooms/shelters, one’s that could withstand the brunt of an extreme tornadic event and provide what FEMA has quoined “near-absolute” protection.

Well, unfortunately, there continues to be those “geniuses” out there that want to pick and choose what elements they follow from the guide documents/standards and are producing nothing but bad carnival rides. So what the heck does this have to do with retrofitting a building to create a tornado shelter? Well it is about a false sense of security, it is about telling someone they have a safe room/shelter when they really don’t!

I’ve heard a lot of talk out there about retrofitting existing buildings to serve as a shelter/safe room to a level that may resist EF1-3 which may cover in the neighborhood of 98% of the tornadoes. But what about the other roughly 2% that may strike a school when it is in session? Is this going to be OK if those children parish because someone decided to roll the dice with their lives and retrofit a building to the EF1-3 events when in fact the school maybe located in a 250 mph wind zone? What about the shelter/safe room that is designed and retrofitted to withstand the EF1-3 only to find out that some of the assumptions that the designer made about the construction of the existing building was in fact wrong due to field changes or poor workmanship? Isn’t this giving people a false sense of security by telling them that it is a “shelter” when it really may not be one, again the basis for guidelines and standards?

Retrofitting and/or down grading tornado shelters/safe rooms is an EXTREMELY “slippery slope” for EVERYONE involved including but not limited to building owners, designers, contractors, and especially end users. It is a situation that I personally, as a designer, have stayed away from because the outcome is potentially a lose/lose. In my humble opinion, the words “lose” and “tornado safe room/shelter” should not be used in the same sentence. Losing a child in a retrofitted school tornado shelter/safe room that has been designed only for an EF1-3 tornado is NOT an option in my book! Is something better than nothing? Is a bicycle with only one wheel better than no bicycle at all? I will let you answer those questions for yourself.

Be careful out there!

Post by Corey Schultz, AIA, LEED AP BD+C

Tornado Shelters relative to Sky Diving. (What the….?)

For those of us who love to fly in aircraft of all types and sizes, sky divers are a weird breed. For us, the old adage “why would you want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane?” applies to all sky divers. So what do perfectly good airplanes and jumping out of them have to do with tornado shelter/safe rooms? Well…plenty! You would be amazed how many shelter/safe rooms have been constructed in schools only to have the Board of Education have a policy when the National Weather Service has forecasted potential tornadic activity, the school district is either not going to have school that day or if kids are in class, they will be sent home. Are you kidding me? They have a perfectly designed, engineered, and constructed shelter/safe room (airplane) and the kids will be sent home (pushed out of the perfectly good airplane). The difference in the analogy is the kids may not have a parachute (shelter option) to keep them from hitting the ground!

Why these policies? Because schools boards do not want to be R E S P O S I B L E for the kids should a tornado hit the school. WOW! WOW! WOW! I am astonished for this reason; School Boards do not want to be responsible for the kids in a shelter/safe room when a tornado strikes, even though the students can have near absolute protection but the BOE has a clear conscience sending kids home, some to poorly constructed homes, some to pre-manufactured homes, without basements or shelter of any type, possibly to their deaths. And they have NO responsibility for this? I am no lawyer, and maybe not the sharpest tack in the box, but I am a parent and believe you me, if my child would parish in a storm due to this policy, I am holding someone accountable! Quite frankly, these types of policies should be illegal! Did I say “WOW”?

Another issue that I continue to hear from schools that thankfully don’t have the “Send ‘em home” policy, however, still relative to sky diving, is parents that feel the need during a tornado warning to go to their child’s school, pick up their child, and take them home when the school has a perfectly good “airplane”. Wait….Wait for it….“WOW”! In my humble opinion, there are five things wrong with this scenario; 1) The parent needlessly exposed themselves to the tornadic event, 2) if the shelter is locked down, now the shelter has to be opened potentially exposing all occupants to the event, 3) The parent needlessly pushes their child out of the “perfectly good airplane”, 4) The parent is not only exposing themselves for the second time but is also exposing their child, 5) unless they have an equal shelter at the location where they are taking the child, this decision may cost the child’s life. How tragic that would be?

In these type of cases, I advise my clients to tell ALL parents that during a tornadic event, for the safety of their child(ren) and their safety, DO NOT come to school to take their kids. For those that are not very good listeners, when the parent gets to the shelter, they are directed to come into the shelter/safe room and STAY with their child but under no circumstance should they let the child or the parent leave. Sound harsh?….Maybe….but it truly is for their own good!

Be careful out there!

Post by Corey Schultz, AIA, LEED AP BD+C

Public Tornado Shelter/Safe Room Management-Part 3

So in Part One of this discussion, we’ve decided to open the shelter/safe room to the public, in Part 2, we have thought about WHEN the shelter/safe room should be open. In this Part, we are going to discuss WHO may show up at your public shelter/safe room.

With a FEMA funded shelter/safe room open to the public, FEMA states that an occupant should be within a ½ mile radius of the shelter/safe room with the thought that one can make the ½ mile trek within a 5 minute period. 5 minutes being the time from when the tornado warning has been given to the time that the shelter/safe room doors should be locked down. All of this is good and well, however, how does the shelter/safe room owner control the number of occupants that actually show up seeking shelter? Obviously, the shelter/safe room has been sized for a finite number of occupants which to some degree is not flexible. So what happens when twice the number of people show up at your shelter/safe room than it was designed? In smaller communities where one or multiple shelter/safe rooms strategically placed could easily support the entire community this may not be an issue but what about larger metro areas where just a few shelter/safe rooms will NOT support the entire community. There could easily be many more occupants showing up than the shelter would support because there is not an easy way to control this. The “Kid with the Golden Ticket” rule does not apply here. This could be easily be disastrous!

Imagine for a moment a community having one public shelter/safe room that is only big enough to support ¼ of the population of that community. This community is directly in the path of a major EF-5 tornado that is 10 minutes away. The community has been notified that this is a “tornado emergency” (as the National Weather Service did in Greensburg, Kansas) and the entire community should seek shelter IMMEDIATELY! Everyone in the community considers their options and 1/2 of the population runs to the ONE public shelter/safe room because it is by far the best protection in town. The shelter fills to capacity within 3 minutes and the doors are closed. What happens to the other ¼ of the population? Those that are beating on the door and pleading to let them in. Some of which may be children. Some of which may have been within the ½ mile radius boundary while others in the shelter/safe room may be outside the boundary. Those people that have exposed themselves to the storm to get to the shelter only to find it full and closed to them. Now they have to expose themselves again, with even less time before the tornado hits to seek shelter elsewhere. Can you imagine how awful that could be?

In recent years, there has been more and more pressure from the public to open tax payer funded community shelters/safe rooms, like schools for example, to the public because “they helped pay for it” so they should be able to use it. But if the shelter/safe room was designed only for the school occupants, what happens when the public shows up seeking shelter when it is full of students and staff? A solution could be to only make the shelter public when school is not in session. So now one has to have TWO different shelter/safe room management plans in place for this to succeed? Where having one successful management plan is scarce to begin with! And you know that even with the school in session rule, there are those that are going to ignore the rule.

Now I’m not saying opening a tax payer funded shelter safe/room to the public can’t happen, it just has to be thought out, documented, communicated, practiced, and executed well!!! Because if it is not, even with the best intentions, it could cost someone their life.

Be careful out there!

Post by Corey Schultz, AIA, LEED AP BD+C

Tornado Shelters – Doing it Right!

I would like to give a shout out to a couple of gentlemen that started out as clients and have become good friends. This is pretty easy when both business parties have the same goals. The two gentlemen that I am referring to are Dave Harman and Paul Maulden, both of Harman-Maulden Designs, Inc. producers of Great Room Shelters.

I’ve been working with the two of them for a couple of years now. They sought me out as a tornado shelter designer because they had heard after talking with several people that “I was the one” they needed to discuss their, new at the time, venture into tornado shelters. I typically will not agree to design pre-fabricated shelters because typical pre-fab shelter producers want you to do one design so they can go out and produce 1,000 of these “widgets”. What typical producers don’t understand as a designer of the “widget” makes me responsible for all 1,000 of them, but I only have been paid for one. So I was a little skeptical when Dave and Paul wanted to visit.

I quickly realized that these two men were not out to “revolutionize the tornado shelter industry” as many have claimed all the while profiting on the designer’s liability. These guys are out to do it right from the get go! For them, it’s not about a race to the bottom. It is about most importantly doing it right and protecting their clients from severe wind events. Now, that sounds pretty simple but the fact is, they are competing in an unregulated industry, where the common attitude is “how can I make it cheaper than the next guy even if I have to sacrifice safety or shelter guidelines or code standards so I can sell more shelters!” Their somewhat unique attitude toward shelters is why I agreed to work with them.

Dave and Paul are about quality, not quantity and as a shelter designer, how refreshing that is! They have a unique product, a shelter that is made out of wood…yes…wood! Solid 2x members stacked and squeezed together with steel vertical rods. Their wall system has been tested for 250 mph wind criteria and passed with flying colors. They have a residential model and have been working on a community type shelter for up to 150 occupants.

So if you are in the market for a residential shelter or even a small community shelter, give Great Room shelters a look at www.greatroomshelters.com. If you talk with Dave or Paul, tell them “Corey sent you!” Rest assured, at the very least, you will have a wonderful conversation with them!

Be careful out there!

Post by Corey Schultz, AIA, LEED AP BD+C

Tornado Shelters in Corridors-not so good

Okay, I know what you are thinking … “When I was a kid we were told the corridor was the safest place to be in the event of a tornado”. I was told that very same thing when I was in school, all the kids were gathered up and sent into the corridors we lined up against the walls and sat cross-legged on the floor. Now that we know what we do today about shelter design is that a safe place to be? It certainly is not! Now it may be the least vulnerable place of refuge in a particular facility if no other interior window-less spaces are available, but still not a good place to find yourself in a tornadic event.

One of the toughest items of design in a shelter are the openings and what single space in a building has the most openings? Corridors! Every opening into the corridor from the spaces leading into it, are places for a potential breach in your “shelter”. The cost of a FEMA 361 or ICC-500 compliant door and hardware can run as much as 4 times the cost of a standard door and hardware adding substantial cost to the shelter as a whole. Corridors often have openings which go directly to the outside at either end, which brings us to another phenomenon that can happen in high wind events known as the “wind tunnel effect” which happens when there is a breach at the end of a corridor and wind is funneled thru a long small space. The speed of this air can actually increase and move faster that the air on the exterior of the building. Most tornados carry debris with the wind and that debris can find itself moving very swiftly through the corridor where the inhabitants are taking shelter.

Another problem with isolating a shelter to a corridor running thru the middle of a non-shelter building is the need to separate the structure in a way that the non-shelter can “blow away” without damaging the structural integrity of the shelter. Having a shelter within a non-shelter host building has many other challenges which is a completely different and hopefully future blog.

Designing a corridor as a tornado shelter can be done, but it may not be the most efficient use of shelter design and construction dollars. All tornado shelters and components of the shelter should be carefully designed and engineered to assure “near absolute” protection for the inhabitants of the shelter no matter where it’s located. Thanks for following, and remember. Ask questions, do your research, and make an informed decision. The lives of others may depend on it.

Post by Shauna Schultz, AIA

Tornado Shelters – Buyer Beware

I continue to be amazed at the ingenuity and creativity by people trying to create a better mouse trap especially when you have an industry that is not regulated. It brings out the “wanna-be-engineers” that sometimes quite frankly don’t have a clue!

In particular, there is a tornado shelter for residents and they are touting it for schools that is actually on wheels. Now I want you to stop and think about that for just a moment…tornado shelter on WHEELS!!! It shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to say “Wait a second, is this a shelter or a bad carnival ride?”

Now in fairness, this particular shelter is anchored to a concrete floor on one edge. It is accordion like and can be moved with a simple pull of a lever. THEN you have to install these cross bars at the hinge points, then you have to install these big drop in bolts into the floor to hold down the moveable end of the shelter. Their claim to fame is you can install one of these in every classroom and they save space! They fold up against the wall to a depth of 17” and you can put a white board on the face of it so you don’t lose wall space.

In my professional opinion, here’s the problems that I see with this shelter concept:

Contrary to their OWN specifications directly off their own website, the shelters do not meet the FEMA P-361, or the ICC-500 and therefore will NOT meet the IBC 2015,
1. No toilets (must have one that is ADA accessible)
2. No hand washing facilities
3. Not enough space as prescribed (per their claim, largest shelter will hold 9 not including space for portable toilet or wheelchair.)
4. No fire extinguisher
5. No fire separation from the host building
6. Not ADA accessible
7. Open space under the moveable portions of the shelter which may exceed the requirements of the 2014 ICC-500 (not yet published)
8. No compliant ventilation system
9. One door with no emergency escape hatch (required in current ICC-500)
The door is out swinging therefore can be blocked by debris very easily.
You have to keep the floor space clear in front of the shelter in order to deploy it or have to plan on taking time to rearrange furniture.
They are directing you to bolt this down to a concrete slab that has not been engineered to resist the forces necessary, (BIG PROBLEM!)
Bolts that one has to put into the floor after the shelter is deployed will have some type of receiver in the floor (see item 3). What if these holes over time fill with dirt/debris and one cannot get the bolt in?
It takes up floor space (more than the 17” advertised) and is a single use shelter!

In a school situation, a classroom with 24 students and one teacher, so, conservatively, you would need a minimum of 3 of these large shelters per classroom at approximately $15,000 each or $45,000 per classroom. To protect 600 occupants would be the equivalent of 24 classrooms or a total cost of (24 x $45,000) $1,080,000, and still not meet FEMA guidelines OR code standards! In this part of the country, we can design and build a 4 classroom fully equipped shelter that does meet the requirements for that same cost!

In my opinion, these type shelters may work well in residential (single family) situations but fails once they stepped over the line into the community shelter realm. And they are not the only ones. Requirements for residential shelters are much less stringent than for community shelters. Many shelter producers just don’t understand this! So..BUYER BEWARE!!

Talk with someone that knows about shelters ESPECIALLY for a community shelter situation. It could save you in the long run!

Be careful out there!