As a part of any tornado shelter management plan should be a requirement to lock all shelter doors before the storm hits.  Let’s exam why is this important.

Some believe locking the shelter door is to keep out people that were not intended to be supported by a shelter.  I guess that could be true in some circumstances.  Others believe that locking the doors is intended to keep the door from being opened at the wrong time.  This is true.  One does not want to open any shelter door if it is susceptible to strong winds that could damage the door and keep it from operating when the storm strikes.

The other BIG reason to lock these doors that many designer’s and building owners miss is to keep debris from activating the exterior door hardware and unlatching the door which could cause it to open.  Sounds pretty simple, right?  What happens in public use shelters where the doors may be automatically unlocked by some sort of technology (which I believe is a disaster waiting to happen and will be discussed in a different blog), who locks those doors?  The public that you are automatically letting into the shelter don’t have a key or if they did, they wouldn’t need it to automatically open.

Make sure all shelter doors are locked!!!

Be careful out there!

Written by Corey Schultz, AIA, LEED BD+C