Must Know Facts About Tornado Safe Rooms

The increasing number of Tornado and Hurricanes forced me to write this article for you. This writes up consists of all the details that you should know about Natural Disasters. You care for your family and we care for you.
Do you know according to research, every year 80+ people are dying because of the tornado and the number of tornadoes each year across the world is crossing approx 1000. That is a serious matter to think about.
Better to batten down the hatches. You may get advanced notice for hurricanes and tropical storms but you will never get such notice for tornados. The information about the happening of a Tornado will reach you just minutes before. If you are living in a Tornado prone area what will you do? You won’t have any time to get a distinct shelter. For preventing such situations safety shelters or Safe Rooms are designed.
Before you read about the facts of Tornado Safe Rooms let me tell you a brief about what exactly safe rooms are and why you should build it in your house. Trust me, this is the thing which will make your day. Let’s start
What is a Tornado Safe Room?
In simple words, it is a room that will protect you and your loved ones at the time of any natural disaster. Tornado safe room is a room generally build out of concrete and steel with no windows in it. It is specifically designed to meet the criteria of FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). These rooms can provide protection against bad weather, such as Tornadoes and Hurricanes.
Important Points you should know about Tornado Safe Rooms
You don’t need to build a new house to have a safe room
To develop rooms to your existing structure FEMA has worked with engineering design schools. This will not look like a brand new room, but yes it is sufficient enough to protect you from heavy storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes.
It is good if you build in the basement or at the main level of the house.
Walls, Ceiling and Safe Room Doors are important
Regardless of where you are installing the safe rooms, walls ceiling and safe room doors are the important things that you should keep in mind. These things will provide you and your family near-absolute protection. Also, this will protect you from missiles and falling debris. There are chances that due to strong winds your home gets completely damaged but this room remains stand as it is and saves you and your loved one’s life.
You can Multitask your Safe Room
Yes, you read that right. Until, this room is needed for a shelter you can use it for various purposes as a walk-in closet, storage space or like any other room in your house.
Things you can keep in your shelter
Basic, Food, and Water – Every human being has 3 basic needs – Food, Shelter, and Water. As you have the shelter for protecting yourself from tornado you can take a backup of the other two things that is food and water. Vacuum packed or canned meat, sneak cracker and a jar of peanut butter. These things will help you to survive for days. Don’t forget to store plenty of bottled water. Make sure you have plastic ware.
Medication and First Aid Kit
Along with food and water, another important thing to keep in your shelter is medication and first kit. If you are taking any medicine on a regular basis it should be kept in the shelter. Make sure to check and change the medicines as per the expiry date.
Copies of all your Important papers
This is the most important advice, papers like identification, banking information, insurance, property-related, list of important contacts will help you a lot at the time of any natural calamity.
Hope the above points are sufficient enough to prove that there is always a benefit in building the Tornado Safe Room, especially if you are living in an area where such natural calamities occur frequently.
How to build a Tornado safe room?
What do you think, a safe room looks like a strong box that can protect you from disaster? If yes, then you are wrong. If an architect is involved in the design and the installment of Safe Room then he can change or develop the complete look as per your requirement. If your house is either behind a mound or a hillock and not right on the coast then this will be the best, because constructing a safe room in such areas will act as a protection against strong cyclonic winds.
Now the construction material required to build a safe room is – steel and concrete, transparent bulletproof polymer, large heavy doors, locking systems, video cameras, motion detector, air filtration, and communication equipment.
The walls and ceiling have layers of plywood, as it can absorb the effect of flying objects. The interior side consists of the layer of gauge steel that blocks debris. Don’t forget to cover the open wall though steel sheets and a layer of plywood.
After the walls and ceiling, tips for safe room doors. A steel door in a steel frame with three deadbolts at the opposite heavy-duty hinges that can block the door-busting debris and allow only humans and pets into the room. Must keep in mind that the door should open inward for easy opening in case fallen bricks block the outside. To make sure it is working properly, open and close the door. To check the frame of the door, use a level.
The room should carry a space of 5 square feet for each person.
Before you begin the construction be sure to get all the permits and complete the legal formalities.
Hope the above information was helpful for you. if you have any more tips or facts related to Tornado safety measures and Tornado safe rooms or shelter rooms then do share with us through comments.