Storm (Tornado) Shelters for K-12 Schools -- Considerations
Mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection design for storm shelters at a school facility require considerations outside the normal facility design parameters and thoughts.
When making coffee at the office, can I lick my fingers to help separate the filters, like I do at home? No. I don’t believe my fellow employees would appreciate this approach. I must patiently and carefully separate the filters without licking my fingers to keep my fellow employees happy and healthy. Or should I even be using latex or vinyl gloves for an absolute best practices approach?
Storms and storm shelters aren’t new, but including storm shelters as part of education facility design and construction is new to our industry as our country, states, and/or municipalities adopt the latest building codes. Storm shelters are required at all 911 call stations; emergency operation centers; and fire, rescue, ambulance, and police stations as well as educational occupancies through grade 12 with occupant loads of 50 or greater. Some state codes, like Indiana’s, define “storm shelter,” “safe room,” and “best available tornado refuge area” as different entities. For the purpose of this article, I will only consider facilities designed to code, so the terms are not differentiated, and the design and construction of every facility should follow the code as best as it can be interpreted. So, are we designing these shelters correctly? Are we using best practices? Where do we find information on details of the MEP design?