State-of-the-Art Protection Against Severe Storms

Safe rooms, or in-home storm shelters, are fast becoming integral components to households in some extreme-wind prone areas such as tornado alley and the hurricane susceptible coastlines of the United States. The main purpose of storm shelters is to protect their human occupants during extreme-wind events, not to protect possessions. For this reason, shelters tend to be relatively small, thereby occupying only a fraction of the floor plan of a home. Because of their size, their assimilation into new and existing constructions is relatively simple and relatively inexpensive. The additional cost of a storm shelter may be justifiable even though the risk to human life compared to other tragic events is relatively low. This paper presents an overview of the analysis and design of in-home storm shelters. In particular, we concentrated on stability, strength, and impact-worthiness of the overall system. We also discuss the effectiveness of existing safe room designs. The paper concludes by summarizing some economic considerations that will foster shelter utilization.