University of FloridaSolutions for Your Life

Download PDF
Publication #FAR5025

 

Safe Rooms1

Donna Davis2

The first time I heard someone refer to a "safe room" they were having designed for their new home, I immediately thought of the recent movie thriller "Panic Room." Sounded like a room to keep your valuables in to me. Indeed, safe rooms are being designed for what I consider very precious…family safety.

Safe rooms aren't just for the rich and famous; they're for anyone who lives in a region prone to weather disasters, such as hurricanes and tornadoes. As a Florida resident, I've had some experience with big wind and an overwhelming sense of responsibility to keep my children safe. A safe room can be something as simple as a closet or a bathroom, the idea being that it's the safest place in your home when storms strike.

According to the Federal Emergency Management Association, if you're considering building a safe room in a new home or adding one to your existing home, there are several questions you should ask when considering whether or not you need a safe room. For example:

• Do you live in a high-risk area?

• How quickly can you reach safe shelter during extreme winds?

• What level of safety do you want to provide?

• What is the cost of a shelter?

For more information, you can request a copy of FEMA's publication, Taking Shelter From the Storm: Building a Safe Room Inside Your House, and visit their website, with accompanying construction plans and specifications, at http://www.fema gov/plan/prevent/saferoom/ index.shtm.

Listening, learning, and living together: it's the science of life. "Family Album" is a co-production of University of Florida IFAS Extension, the Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, and of WUFT-FM. If you'd like to learn more, please visit our website at http://www.familyalbumradio.org.

To listen to the radio broadcast:

http://www.radiosource.net/radio_stories/225.mp3

http://www.radiosource.net/radio_stories/225.wav

Footnotes

1.

This document is FAR5025, one of a series of the Family Youth and Community Sciences Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Broadcast as program 228 and published April 2009. Revised October 2010. Reviewed March 2012. In the interest of time and/or clarity, the broadcast version of this script may have been modified. Visit the EDIS website at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.

2.

Donna Davis, senior producer, Family Album Radio, Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611.

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Nick T. Place, Dean.