Storm Shelter Standard
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Extreme Masonry: Storm Shelter Standard Approved
The International Code Council (ICC) recently announced that ANSI
(American National Standards Institute) has approved ICC/NSSA
Standard on the Design and Construction of Storm Shelters (ICC
500-2008). The standard has been under development for several years
by a joint committee of the ICC and National Storm Shelter Association
(NSSA). It provides design, construction, and testing requirements
for community shelters and shelters for residences.
 Shelters
may be stand-alone structures or incorporated into a portion of
another structure, such as a safe room. Both hurricanes and tornadoes
are covered and a shelter can be designed and constructed for either
or both of these high-wind events.
Under the standard, design wind pressures are significantly higher
than typically required for other buildings. In addition, all portions
of the exterior envelope of the shelter, including walls and roof,
must be shown by testing to be able to resist the impact of test
missiles. The test missiles are representative of debris likely
to impact the shelter. Since reinforced concrete and masonry construction
can be economically constructed to meet these stringent requirements,
they are the materials of choice in constructing storm shelters.
The standard does not mandate that storm shelters be constructed.
Rather, it is up to those involved with local building codes or
ordinances to adopt the standard and require certain buildings to
have shelters. The International Building Code (IBC) and
International Residential Code (IRC) adopted the standard
by reference at the ICC Final Action Hearings in September 2008.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is expected to recognize
the standard for construction of hurricane and tornado safe rooms
in its Hazard Mitigation Assistance program.
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