Need a Safe Room for Your Corporate VIPs at Home? Resilient Homes can be Last Room Standing

While this photo does not represent modern safe rooms, the interior room that survived a tornado in Xenia, Ohio, reminds us just how critical safe rooms could be.
For 18 horrific hours on April 3, 1974, the largest and most
cataclysmic tornado on record for a single 24-hour period took North America by
storm. Actually, it was 148 tornadoes, which spun through and sacked 13 states
and one Canadian province, ravaging some 900 square miles and killing 148
people.
An iconic photo – see it at right -- snapped in the
tragedy’s aftermath speaks the proverbial thousand words: amid trees knocked
down like matchsticks and houses crushed like eggshells, one thing remained
intact, standing erect and defying nature’s wrath: an interior bathroom, whose
walls had not been connected to the rest of the house. This image demonstrates
how a single room can withstand the wrath of a tornado and serve as a safe
haven.
Today, a consortium of government officials and academics
works to raise awareness about the life-saving capabilities of storm shelters.
The team is a who’s who of researchers and atmospheric
scientists and includes the Department of Homeland Security Science and
Technology Directorate (S&T); the Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA); the Southeast Region Research Initiative (SERRI); the Walt Disney World
Resort; the International Code Council (ICC); the Federal Alliance for Safe
Homes; and the Oak Ridge National Lab.
The focus of their activity is a pilot project called the
Resilient Home Program, which is funded in part by S&T’s Infrastructure and
Geophysical Division. The program incorporates newly revised guidance from FEMA
on designs for basement, in-ground, and above-ground safe rooms; and an ICC
standard, which specifies requirements for the design and construction of such
sanctuaries.
The program takes place in the American Southeast, a region
that draws tornadoes with a frequency and fury that rival the famous “tornado
alley” of the Midwest. Making matters worse, the Southeast is a magnet for
nocturnal storms, which strike between sunset and sunrise and often double the
fatalities of their daytime counterparts. Furthermore, the Southeast’s
population is particularly vulnerable to disasters, with large numbers of
seniors and mobile homes.
Last year, tornadoes pummeled homes and farms in 18
FEMA-declared disasters, stretching from Florida, through the South, and up
into Illinois. So far this year, tornadoes have been a part of six more
disasters, most recently in Oklahoma and Mississippi. On May 10, 2010, at least
22 tornadoes tore through the Sooner State on a single day, ripping off metal
roofs and killing several people. In the Magnolia State, an unusually high
number of homes in the storm’s path—more than half—were destroyed on April 24.
Each flattened wood frame left behind a reminder about the need for a pocket of
space that can turn back a howling twister.
And the tornado season is far from over.
“The Resilient Home Program isn’t a 30-page report that
winds up in a binder on a bookshelf,” says S&T program manager Mike
Matthews. “It’s a roll-up-your-sleeves collaboration among many different
entities — homeowners, builders, and insurers — that will help to fortify
people’s homes, lives and communities.” As Matthews sees it, the sooner
families can return to their homes, the faster a community can recapture its
vitality.
To meet these goals, the team is undertaking a two-part
process. First, the research: Why do some homeowners opt for safe rooms while
others go without? Then the outreach: Use these findings to communicate with
the public and the construction and insurance industries.
The team surveyed 822 homeowners in seven states: Alabama,
Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The
online forms asked participants a battery of questions about their knowledge of
and interest in safe rooms. “The more we understand about how people perceive
safe rooms, the more success we’ll have in increasing their number,” says
Matthews.
From their answers, certain patterns emerged. For instance,
homeowners are well-aware that safe rooms can save their lives. Yet they see
little value in investing in something that would be used so little or perhaps
not at all. For that kind of cash (about $10,000), they’d rather buy a home
theater or remodel their kitchen. So the team decided to brand safe rooms as a
home-furnishing project—something fun rather than a necessary evil. After all,
from bathrooms to bedrooms to boardrooms, there’s a reality show on remodeling
it.
The messaging was refined in March in focus groups with remodelers and builders. Further creative honing has continued in recent months via interviews with consumers and meetings with insurers to identify incentives that will defray construction costs. In the meantime, the team is engaged in good old public relations, promoting Resilient Homes via TV segments, partnerships, speeches, workshops, demos—and articles like this one.
In an unrelated action, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announcement of adoption of standards for the Voluntary Private Sector Preparedness Accreditation and Certification (PS-Prep) program marks a major milestone. Under an agreement with DHS, the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board will be the accreditation body for the PS-Prep Program. Accreditation will be offered under the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board’s ANAB brand. “Private organizations across the country — from businesses to universities to non-profit organizations — have a vital role to play in bolstering our disaster preparedness and response capabilities,” the DHS Secretary said. “These new standards will provide our private sector partners with the tools they need to enhance the readiness and resiliency of our nation.” The adoption of the standards — developed by the National Fire Protection Association, the British Standards Institution, and ASIS International — was published in a June 16, 2010, Federal Register notice following a series of regional public meetings and the incorporation of public comments.
On the information security side, the biggest
vulnerabilities in the enterprise might be items people see every day — and
just don’t think about. Experts say that vulnerability assessments often
overlook the everyday dangers: Network-attached devices that aren’t computers;
paper documents; passwords posted in plain view; portable storage devices. Most
of these are technologies that would never be taken into account by a traditional
vulnerability scan. Yet they could lead to data leaks just as surely as a
keylogger or a data-stealing Trojan, experts say. “Peripheral devices on the
network may have capabilities the business doesn’t know of,” said a delivery
manager for custom testing at security assessment firm ICSA. “And those
capabilities can create security vulnerabilities.” Printers, fax machines, and
multifunction devices with persistent storage could all serve as entry points
for a sophisticated hacker. And the presence of internal storage might not be
clear at first glance, nor does it necessarily show up on traditional security
audits. A thorough vulnerability assessment should include examining all
hard-copy devices for internal-storage capability — this could require contacting
the manufacturer or even opening the machine. Enterprises also should take
steps to ensure that digital files are wiped from these devices as soon as the
hard copy is produced or the fax transmitted. This could mean purchasing and
installing additional software from the manufacturer.
Hve you set up a safe room for a VIP’s home? Email your comments to zaludreport@bnpmedia.com