VOBB® Safe Room / Storm Shelter
This web page is dedicated to Mark C. from the Houston (Webster), Texas area who experienced the misery from Hurricane Rita evacuation.
Hurricane Rita 2005. What an incredible, insane mess. With reports on the radio of an enormous category 5 storm headed right for Houston came pleads to evacuate. And evacuate we did. We left at 3pm on Wednesday, heading west on I-10. We spent 11 hours in traffic, nearly ran out of gas, and traveled a total of 72 miles before turning around & coming home. After siphoning all the gas out of our 2 other cars into our Suburban (all the gas stations were closed), we tried again Thursday. These pictures are from our trip that day, north on I45 from Houston to Dallas. We left at 8am, arrived at 3am in Dallas, for a total of 19 hours in the car. Fortunately, the storm weakened and didn’t hit Houston directly. Next time, most of these people will probably do what I will. Stay home. Better to weather a storm at the house than on the side of the freeway. (NOTE: VOBB strongly recommends to follow government evacuations and common sense. Better safe than sorry.)
Next time? I just don’t know. I’m not sure you can call the evacuation a success when the storm didn’t even hit Houston. We spent over $300 on just gasoline alone, when we could find it. Next time, I’m for darn sure going to bring a few extra gallons of gas, leave the dog home, and pack at least 25 gallons of ice water. It was misery. It really was. But, the story had a good ending, at least. No damage was dine to our property. We’re all alive, and we can all remember the worst traffic jam in the history of the world.
I spent a total of 36 hours in the car with my family and dog during Rita in 2005:
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As a result of Mark's incredible experience, Mark decided to build a safe room / storm shelter. Mark attended the VOBB class in Lafayette, LA.
Mark cutting VOBB concrete block (Mark drove from Webster (close to Houston), TX. Mark went home and did some more testing which has been most interesting.
The Safe Room / Storm Shelter:
My plan was to build a “safe room”. Something small, made out of concrete blocks, that would be big enough to weather the storm in, but not big enough to live in for any length of time. Just in case, so I’ll survive with my family.
For a full set of Mark's plans, see: http://www.ls1m.com/demo/HurricanePlan2007.pdf
FYI:
Plans for building a 8’x8’ shelter are available from FEMA, under their document 320: http://www.fema.gov/plan/prevent/saferoom/fema320.shtm
NOTE: FEMA's 320 document specifies a minimum 6" concrete masonry unit.
It’s designed to withstand a category-5 storm as well as an F5 tornado. Very stout. They also have plans for a large commercial shelter, document 361: http://www.fema.gov/library/viewRecord.do?id=1657
Has a lot of useful information in it about which materials can withstand pressure & debris impact, that sort of thing. I also found plans for building a safe room out of wood, but I can’t find the site any more. There’s another site that’s very useful, called the National Storm Shelter Association, that has a lot of information about storm shelters: http://www.nssa.cc/
I looked at the FEMA 320 document, and decided a concrete safe room, built with concrete blocks and a poured concrete roof, was the way to go. I didn’t feel like any wooden structure would be safe enough, and I thought that concrete looked like something fun to learn.
FYI: (Personal opinion of Mark) I also used Quikrete standard concrete mix. I was not impressed. Maximizer (5500 psi) is much better, and if you figure in the difference in volume (maximizer makes more cu ft per lb), the price is the same.
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I'd be happy to answer any questions. Concrete building, and especially safe rooms, are a kind of passion of mine.
If you would like to contact Mark, please email him at: chauvin555@sbcglobal.net
Again, many thanks to Mark in his understanding to build with quality VOBB® on a cost effective basis.
Due
to numerous different soil conditions, building codes, etc.,
VOBB® makes no
guarantees and/or warranties (expressed or implied).
Please contact a qualified
engineer, architect or building inspector as needed.
