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Rebuild Safer, Stronger To Reduce Future Tornado Damage

Residents and business owners who are repairing or rebuilding in the wake of recent severe storms and tornadoes face many choices and opportunities as they put the pieces of their homes, businesses and lives back together.

Federal mitigation experts offer several suggestions for measures to take to potentially reduce the risk of losses in future disasters:

Roofs – Roofs are extremely susceptible to wind damage. When the roof lifts off it may collapse back down on the house. In both new construction and retrofitting, people should build to ensure the connections between the roof and walls are strong enough to resist the uplift effect of high winds.
Garage Doors – High winds can severely damage a weak garage door, creating wind pressure that lifts the garage roof. If it’s hinged to the house, the garage roof can pull off part of the house or put pressure on the house roof, which then may lift off. Retrofitting older garage doors helps increase a home's storm resistance, while new reinforced garage doors help to protect your garage and its contents.
Shutters and Doors – High winds and windborne debris can easily break unprotected windows and cause doors to fail. The most reliable method of protecting windows and doors is installing permanent storm shutters. Alternatives include temporary plywood covers, mesh or screen systems and impact-resistant windows and doors.
Foundations - Many homes are built on concrete pads to which they are only slightly connected. Severe winds pull the walls right out of the foundation. To resist high winds, structures must be firmly connected to foundations. Bolts set deep into concrete foundations and topped with a washer and nut should be used to secure the structure to the foundation.
Personal Safety - A safe room provides protection. It is designed to withstand extreme winds, with steel-reinforced concrete or steel sheathing to make the walls and ceiling virtually puncture-proof. It’s also a good idea to keep an emergency kit in the safe room.

For more information on building safer and stronger, visit go.usa.gov/yKL

Be Ready in 2012

It’s a new year, and you have a new opportunity to plan for an emergency and make a kit.

Plans and kits should be customized for individual needs and responsibilities based on the methods of communication, types of shelter and methods of transportation available. Other factors to keep in mind include:

The number of household members, as well as their ages;
Responsibilities for assisting others;
Dietary needs;
Medical needs, including prescriptions and equipment;
Disabilities or access and functional needs including devices and equipment;
Languages;
Cultural and religious considerations; and
Pets or service animals.

In planning for emergencies, all of these individual differences make it important for every household and individual to consider what they need to have in their plans and supplies. A few examples:

Households with children in school should understand their school’s plans for sheltering, and know where their children will be safe until it is safe for adults in the household to pick them up.
Individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing should make sure that they can receive emergency alerts and warnings in an accessible form
Individuals who require accessible transportation should work with their local para-transit and disability service providers to make an emergency plan.
People who speak languages other than English may need to identify sources of alerts and warnings and information about community plans in other languages.
People without vehicles should know local plans for public transportation and may need to make arrangements for transportation from local government, organizations or others.
Households with infants should plan for food and supplies for infants and nursing mothers.
People with dietary needs should have an adequate emergency food supply to meet their needs.
People who take medications should maintain an adequate supply, and copies of their prescriptions.
People with service animals should work with local emergency management to ensure that their service dog will be admitted to shelters with them during emergencies (as required by law) and should make sure their plan kit supplies include food and other items for their service animal.
People who require power for medical or other assistive devices should consider how they will maintain the use of these devices if there is a loss of power. Keep extra batteries for small devices (hearing aids, cell phones for example) and consider obtaining and learning how to use a generator for home use and carrying a charger when away from home, especially when loss of power may jeopardize health or safety.

Last Modified: Wednesday, 02-May-2012 09:20:34 EDT

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Federal Emergency Management Agency
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
500 C Street SW, Washington, D.C. 20472
(202) 646-2500

Text PREPARE to 43362 (4FEMA). Msg/data rates apply

(800) 621-FEMA / TTY (800) 462-7585
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Rebuild Safer, Stronger To Reduce Future Tornado Damage

Be Ready in 2012

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