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Star-Bulletin file photo
Ryan Trenton, 8, stands with family friend Debbie Porcella
outside his former home in Kukuiula -- Hurricane Iniki
shredded it and many other buildings.

Safe rooms
offer shield
from disasters

A seminar will explain how
to make an ordinary room a
better place in emergencies

By Helen Altonn
Star-Bulletin

Islanders worried about protecting themselves from devastating hurricanes and earthquakes can do it in their own homes, according to engineers.

A room normally used in a house, such as a closet, bathroom or utility room, can be turned into a "safe room" for emergencies, says Dr. Kishor Mehta, director of the Wind Engineering Research Center, Texas Tech University.

"You can make use of the space on a daily basis and use it as a shelter when you need it."

Mehta will speak tomorrow at a safe-room seminar sponsored by the Structural Engineers Association of Hawaii.

Dennis K. Hanatani, association vice president, said about 50 people are expected. Registration will be at 11:30 a.m. and the seminar will follow lunch at 1 p.m.

Also speaking will be Michael McCalley, vice president, Keepsafe Industries Inc., Fredericksburg, Va.

Mehta's research center developed the technology to design and build safe rooms in collaboration with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Designed for 200-mph winds

In a telephone interview, Mehta said the center has been working on a design for in-home shelters for tornados since the mid-1970s and worked with FEMA to design shelters for hurricanes as well.

For tornados, Mehta said, "We wanted it to be inside the house because you have relatively little warning. Fortunately for hurricanes, thanks to satellites, we have pretty good warnings."

He said the safe room has been designed for hurricane winds as high as 200 mph although "for Hawaii, there is no record of anything more than Category Three in the last 100 years."

Hurricanes with winds of 110 to 130 mph fall into Category Three; those with winds 131 to 155 mph are in Category Four.

Hurricane Iniki packed winds of about 140 mph with gusts of more than 165 mph, putting it between Categories Three and Four, said Hans Rosendal, National Weather Service lead forecaster.

Safe rooms are designed for tornados with winds up to 250 mph, Mehta said. But tornado winds last maybe two or three minutes while hurricane winds continue two to three hours or longer, he pointed out.

Safe rooms also can provide shelter for other hazards, such as earthquakes, but they're not recommended for coastal areas prone to flooding and storm surge, Mehta said.

He estimates the cost of building a safe room at about $4,000 to $5,000, using space already available.

The shelters are designed to be 8 feet by 8 feet, although they don't have to be that large, he said. They're made of common material but put together differently for safety, he said.

Safe room tested in tornado

The first real test of a safe room was last May in Oklahoma City, Mehta said. A family had built a shelter with a similar design in their home.

A tornado destroyed the home but the shelter, in one of the larger closets, was not damaged.

Although there is more warning for hurricanes, Hanatani sees the value of safe rooms in Hawaii. They can serve as multipurpose rooms and are easily accessible, particularly for people who have difficulty getting around, he said.

Also, with roads possibly clogged by traffic or fallen trees, he said, "A safe room is easy to get to."

More information can be obtained from a FEMA publication, "Taking Shelter From the Storm: Building a Safe Room Inside Your House." It includes construction plans and cost estimates. FEMA's address is 500 C St., SW, Washington D.C., 20472.

Safe room information also is available on the FEMA Web site, http://www.fema.gov.

Or at http://www.wind.ttu.edu/index.html.