Designing Hurricane Evacuation Shelters

Over the past decade there has been a significant migration of people to the US coastlines as baby boomers either retire or have the means to purchase second homes. During a severe hurricane event, this increased population will make it even more difficult to evacuate everyone who might be in harms way; the only alternative will be to shelter those people someplace while the storm passes. Schools are usually the place chosen as shelters because of large open spaces available to house large numbers of people for short durations and because they are located in neighborhoods close to the populace. The very design features that make schools a good sheltering place are also the same features that make schools very vulnerable to failure under the very same hurricane conditions — open spaces, tall walls and long span roofs. However, there are some design considerations that can and should be made in schools that can mitigate the effects of these features and still provide the community with sheltering alternatives.