Install a Safe Room
02/25/2025
Make Resilient Upgrades | Strengthen Your Home •
Why does it matter?
Tornado safe rooms or storm shelters can provide you and your family with a safe space during a tornado, which can have devastating winds potentially as high, or even higher, than 250 miles per hour. And because tornadoes can form in minutes, you may not have the time to seek shelter outside your own home. A certified safe room or storm shelter can provide the ultimate indoor safety protection for you and your family from the dangerous forces of severe winds and tornadoes.
What do I need to know?
- FEMA defines a safe room as complying to FEMA P-361 criteria, and the International Code Council (ICC) defines a storm shelter as meeting ICC/NSSA 500 Standard.
- FEMA P-361 includes the requirements of ICC/NSSA 500 and adds specific technical criteria and best practices.
- This article will reference safe rooms throughout.
- Safe rooms can be site-built or manufactured and can be installed in new or existing homes.
- Safe rooms can be located anywhere on the first floor of a home, in a garage, or outside.
- Safe rooms meeting FEMA P-361 and storm shelters complying with ICC 500/NSSA must be designed for wind speeds up to 250 mph and debris impacts from a 15 lb 2x4 board traveling at 100 mph.
- Safe rooms should be stocked with non-perishable food, water, and a form of communication.
- The notion of life safety plus building protection is the basis for the Dual-Objective-Based Tornado Design Philosophy that has introduced the research-informed notion that we can build to save most houses in the path of a tornado because most tornadoes fall below the EF4 and EF5 levels.
Where do I start?
Issues critical to performance include:
- Safe rooms must be structurally isolated from the main structure of your home.
- Safe rooms must be securely anchored to the foundation.
- Safe rooms installed in or over a crawl space must have a separate foundation.
- All components of safe rooms, including walls, ceilings, and door assemblies, must be designed and tested to resist the specified wind forces and prevent perforation by wind-borne debris.
- Safe rooms must have adequate ventilation.
Discover technical details:
- As noted above, FEMA P-361 has the requirements of ICC/NSSA 500 with additional technical criteria and best practices.
- Tornado safe rooms should meet FEMA 320 (individual rooms) and FEMA 361 (community shelters).
More Resources: