Tag Archives: FEMA 361

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 – 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:

  1. 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)
  2. The door is out swinging therefore can be blocked by debris very easily.
  3. 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.
  4. They are directing you to bolt this down to a concrete slab that has not been engineered to resist the forces necessary, (BIG PROBLEM!)
  5. 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?
  6. 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!

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