Residents Strongly Encouraged To Consider Building Safe Rooms 

Release Date: May 27, 2003
Release Number: 1462-26

» More Information on Kansas Severe Storms, Tornadoes and Flooding

Lenexa, KS -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Wind Engineering Research Center at Texas Tech University have developed specifications for safe rooms. Having a safe room built into your house can help you protect yourself and your family from injury or death caused by dangerous forces of extreme winds.

Emergency response personnel and people cleaning up after tornadoes have often found an interior room of a severely damaged house still standing when little else remains of the structure.

"The room is designed to withstand sustained winds up to 250 miles per hour, which would be an F4 tornado, and to resist penetration by a horizontally driven, 15-pound 2 x 4 stud traveling at 100 miles per hour," said Federal Coordinating Officer Mike Hall.

FEMA and Texas Tech have published Taking Shelter from the Storm: Building a Safe Room Inside Your House. This 28-page, illustrated booklet provides a homeowner risk assessment sheet, guidance for selecting a shelter design, detailed construction plans, materials and cost estimates for building an in-home safe room. Construction costs typically range from $4,000 to $10,000, depending upon the specific design, materials, and local construction costs.

A safe room can be constructed either above or below ground, with either reinforced concrete or wood-and-steel walls, anchored to a concrete slab foundation or floor. Homeowners who receive a loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) to repair or rebuild a damaged or destroyed home may use some of the loan proceeds to construct a safe room. The SBA can also increase the approved disaster loan by up to 20 percent to cover the cost of adding a safe room.

Kansas is susceptible to severe winds and tornadoes. "We encourage people to consider building safe rooms," said Chuck Bredahl, State Coordinating Officer for Kansas.

Although their neighborhood was destroyed, Robert and Vanessa Carrender survived the May 4, 2003, tornado in their Kansas City home in a safe room that was over 30 years old. "It's worth every dollar it costs when you can trust your life to it," said Robert Carrender.

Taking Shelter from the Storm: Building a Safe Room Inside Your House (FEMA 320) is available free from FEMA. To obtain a copy, call FEMA publications at 1-888-565-3896. This is also available electronically at www.fema.gov/fima.

Last Modified: Wednesday, 28-May-2003 15:36:23