Besides FEMA guidance, what other codes and standards are available for safe rooms and community shelters?
In August 2008, the International Code Council (ICC), with the support of the National Storm Shelter Association (NSSA), released a consensus standard on the design and construction of storm shelters: ICC-500, ICC/NSSA Standard for the Design and Construction of Storm Shelters. This standard codifies much of the extreme-wind shelter recommendations of the early editions of FEMA 320 and 361. The ICC-500 provides minimum design and construction requirements that may be adopted by local jurisdictions for extreme-wind storm shelters, though it does not provide the same near-absolute protection of FEMA 361 and 320 (2008 editions). Although FEMA criteria and the ICC criteria are based upon the same hazard identification (i.e., they use the same design wind speed maps), there are differences in the wind and debris impact protection afforded by the FEMA criteria. Further, the FEMA criteria provide limitations on the placement of safe rooms in flood hazard areas for emergency management reasons
