Some people are great at packing for vacation. They make a list, lay everything out neatly, and know how to fold their clothes to minimize wrinkles. Other folks (like me) are horrible at packing, choosing to shove one of everything they own into a suitcase at the last minute. Then, on the second day of vacation, they realize they totally forgot their underwear or toothbrush (I've forgotten both)!
But packing for disaster is serious business and shouldn't be left until the last minute or, worse, ignored in the hope that a disaster kit won't be needed. So, how do you go about packing your family's disaster supply kit? Here are some important tips provided by Ready.gov: 1) Take stock of the most likely disasters or emergencies your family is likely to face and choose your supplies accordingly. Spring emergencies, such as tornadoes, will require some different supplies than winter emergencies, such as ice storms. 2) Understand that a disaster that destroys your home might cover enough territory to render first responders unable to reach you for several hours or even a day or two. Ready.gov and FEMA recommend that your family be self-sufficient for 72 hours. 3) Water is critical. Store one gallon of water per person per day for at least three days to be used for drinking and sanitation. Healthy people can go much longer without food than without water. Don't cut corners here! 4) Stock a three day supply of non-perishable food items such as granola bars, jerky, canned fruit and vegetables (but don't forget the can opener), and peanut butter. Put some disposable paper plates, napkins, and plastic silverware in with your food supplies. 5) Purchase a high-quality battery-powered or hand crank NOAA weather radio. Good radios aren't too expensive and may be your only source of information after a disaster if cell towers go down or are overloaded. 6) Grab a 5 gallon plastic bucket and add a flashlight, extra batteries, a first aid kit, an emergency whistle, dust masks, rubber gloves, duct tape, a tarp, some moist towelettes, garbage bags, and cell phone chargers that run on solar power or are pre-charged. 7) If someone in your family is dependent upon medications, make sure to have a safe supply of their prescriptions on hand. And, if your sheltering with your family's pets, pack a three day supply of water and food for them, too. Consider adding a pet first aid kit in case they're injured by leftover debris after the disaster passes. In addition to gathering your survival supplies, practice responding to emergencies with your family. If you're awoken in the middle of the night by tornado sirens, everyone will respond better and more quickly if they've practiced their responses before the disaster strikes. Want to learn more about being prepared and protecting your family? Visit www.ready.gov for important information, tips, and checklists.
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Survival experts, outdoor and otherwise, are well acquainted with the Rule of Three as it applies to living through a disaster.
In extreme conditions, you can live 3 minutes without air, 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food. So, how does that knowledge affect your family's disaster preparation? If you're confronted by a disaster, minor or major, it's critical that your plan, and the materials you have on hand, address the warnings of the Rule of Three. If you've purchased, or begun shopping for, a storm shelter, you're moving your family closer to being prepared to survive a natural disaster. Not only can a storm shelter save your life in the face of tornadoes or hurricanes, but it can also provide longer term shelter after the disaster has moved through your area. With the addition of water and food storage, first aid kits, basic clean up equipment such as masking tape and tarps, and chemical toilets, your family can be self-sustaining for the few days it may take for help to arrive. Living for a few days in your Safe Sheds above ground shelter becomes a primitive camping experience with sufficient preparation. If you take shelter when severe weather approaches and exit the shelter later to find everything you own destroyed, you still have a roof over your head, a safe place to sleep, and a small building that can become your headquarters as you begin to cleanup and recover. Even if you're able to leave your Safe Shed soon after the storm, having an indestructible, lockable building in which you can store what valuables you can retrieve will give you piece of mind when you leave your property behind. Now you know the rule of three for survival, and you can see how vital having shelter is to your family's survival in the face of natural or man-made disasters. Finding shelter is much more critical than having water and food in the immediacy of the crisis. Keep that in mind as you shop for storm shelters and begin putting your family's disaster plan together. And give us a call if we can help in any way! Customers always want the best foundation for their storm shelter and many assume they need to pour a concrete pad. While that is necessary for most above ground storm shelters, it really is an unnecessary expense for a Safe Shed tornado shelter.
Our shelters have a 6" steel reinforced floor that is seamlessly connected to the 4" steel reinforced walls. Most other shelters don't have a floor at all and require the buyer to pour a concrete pad, reinforced with a rebar grid, that they can attach the storm shelter to for anchoring. And the thickness, reinforcement, and quality of the concrete pad the customer pours determines how safe the shelter will be, ultimately. Plus the cost of pouring a suitable pad for the floorless shelter is in addition to the cost of the shelter you're buying. It can really start to add up! So what's the best foundation for a Safe Shed storm shelter? We prefer that you set our concrete tornado shelters directly on the ground, with just a 3" to 4" thick layer of level gravel. The weight of the shelter will cause it to settle nicely into the gravel pad, and our installers can easily auger down 4' below the shelter at all four corners to anchor it securely to the ground. Save yourself some time, money, and stress...forgo the concrete pad and choose a Safe Shed above ground storm shelter so the floor, walls, and roof all form one seamless building. As you research builders and installers of storm shelters, you may run across a couple of terms that can cause some confusion. Should you buy a storm shelter or a safe room? Or is there really any difference at all?
Simply put a safe room, as defined by FEMA standards, is a storm shelter. But a storm shelter may not be a safe room. Still confused? Here's how FEMA defines both in their Pub. 361 (Safe Rooms for Tornadoes and Hurricanes, March 2015). "FEMA defines 'safe rooms' as buildings or portions thereof that comply with the criteria described in this publication {Pub. 361}. ICC 500 defines 'storm shelters' as buildings or portion thereof that comply with ICC 500. Though similar, there are important differences. All safe room criteria in FEMA P-361 meet the storm shelter requirements of the ICC 500, but FEMA P-361 includes a few design and performance criteria that are more conservative than those in the ICC 500." If a builder meets FEMA Pub. 361's more stringent engineering requirements, the shelter may be referred to as a "safe room", providing near-absolute protection for the occupants during tornadoes and hurricanes. If a builder meets the ICC 500 requirements, but falls short of FEMA Pub. 361 stipulations, the resulting shelter is not a safe room...it should be referred to as a storm shelter. So, what's a Safe Shed? A safe room or a storm shelter? Good question. Although we refer to our shelters as tornado and/or storm shelters, we do meet the "safe room" engineering requirements of FEMA Pub. 361. If a Safe Shed is a "safe room", why don't you call it a "safe room"? Another good question. We don't use the term "safe room" because the average consumer doesn't use that term. If we want to be found on the internet, and help people understand what we're selling, we've discovered that using the term "storm shelter" or "tornado shelter" does a better job. Folks don't go to Google and search for "safe rooms" when they're looking for a tornado shelter. People usually think the term "safe room" refers to a hardened room inside their home where they would hunker down if someone tried to break in, like Jodie Foster in the movie "Panic Room" or the family under attack in the movie "The Purge". You can rest assured that a Safe Shed DOES meet the strict FEMA engineering requirements to provide near-absolute protection for you and your family. Whether you call it a tornado shelter, a storm shelter, or a safe room, if you're looking for protection against EF5 tornadoes, we've got you covered! |
AuthorMembers of the Safe Sheds team contribute posts from time-to-time. Archives
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Salem, Illinois 62881 Monday - Friday, 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. CST 888-556-1531 (toll free) 618-740-0044 (local) support@safesheds.com |
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