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About the Author

James Waller, P.E. , is both president of Remagen Corporation of Monteagle, Tennessee, and of the National Storm Shelter Association. He is a graduate of the U. S. Military Academy and holds the Master of Science degree from the University of Miami in Florida. Waller has received numerous engineering awards, including the U. S. Army Materiel Command Certificate of Achievement for his participation in the air drop design verification tests of the Army's Sheridan tank and a commendation from the American Institute of Architects for the engineering of the Baltimore (Maryland) Camden Yards site of the home games of the Orioles' professional baseball team.

TORNADO, WIND, AND WATER PROTECTION - PREPARING FOR THE EXPECTED

by: JAMES WALLER
In many parts of the United States, windstorms can be expected to create significant destruction to organization premises and assets. During 1999, as an example of what can occur because of this type of damage, more than 273,180 individuals, organizations, and families sought U.S. Government aid as the result of the impact of natural disasters. Almost 213,000 of these claims resulted from the occurrence of hurricanes alone. However, hurricanes are not the sole source of such losses; tornadoes also play a role in such incidents. According to the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), lightning and fires result, as well, in serious losses to an assortment of organizations. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has reported that slightly over $10 trillion in property damage took place during 1999 just as a result of fires. The NFPA has observed that both burglary and vandalism are also serious threats in many parts of the United States. The U.S. culture has changed to the point where incidents of both employee sabotage and the theft of information are not rare. It is not uncommon, for example, for terminated employees to seek revenge against a former employer by destroying some portion of that organization's critical assets.

THE IMPACT OF TORNADOES

The remainder of this article focuses on the particular risk and damage that can be associated with tornadoes. Individuals who have IT security responsibilities should expect this type of wind-related damage to occur periodically in different parts of the United States.

It is important to recognize that a real-world tornado is not orderly and can hurt people and damage buildings and property in a very irrational manner A real-world tornado does not appear or act as the motion picture and television program special effects might lead one to believe.

It is very difficult to anticipate either the occurrence of a tornado in a particular locale or the damage that such an event might create. In a typical year, 800 tornadoes are reported nationally in the United States. It will be valuable to understand what an actual tornado is. It is a very powerful rotating air funnel that stretches from an airborne thunderstorm to the ground. It is possible for such an air column to exert wind speeds of 250 mph or more. A tornado can create a destruction path in excess of one mile wide and 50 miles long.

Tornadoes are commonly generated during the early state of the development of a thunderstorm. Tornadoes may appear to be almost transparent until dust, trash, and wreckage are picked up by the rotating air column. At this phase of their development, the area of strong damage causing the rotating wind can be two to six miles wide. Not all tornadoes occur on land. For example, a waterspout is a relatively low power tornado that can develop over areas of warm water. A waterspout can move inland, transform itself into a more conventional tornado, and both create destruction and cause injury.

WHAT CAN HAPPEN

t is not uncommon for several tornadoes to occur essentially separately, but, for all practical purposes, concurrently. Two separate events on Monday evening, May 3, 1999, illustrated the risk that can be associated with this type of occurrence. More than 70 especially violent tornadoes were produced at almost the same time by 12 so-called supercell thunderstorms. (Such a destructive event occurs relatively infrequently, but can have a major impact on both the people and structures in its path.) Among the more powerful of these 70 storms was a very strong tornado that moved from Chickasha, Oklahoma east to Oklahoma City, which is the site of both the state capitol and the massive Tinker U.S. Air Force Base. The storm damaged many rural sections of central Oklahoma as well as heavily populated neighborhoods in the Oklahoma City suburbs. This single tornado killed 42 people, injured several hundred others, and created over $1 billion in damages.

At almost the same time that this Oklahoma City tornado occurred, another extremely strong tornado moved through Haysville, a suburb of Wichita in southern Kansas. (Wichita the largest city in the state and also the site of the McConnell U.S. Air Force Base.) This particular tornado was responsible for six deaths, 150 injuries, and more than $140 million damages. While these two tornadoes received the greatest attention from the U.S. news media, they were just two of an admittedly rare, but very significant outbreak of violent tornadoes.

Media attention to tornadoes in the U.S. appears to be determined by the locale of the event and the timing of the occurrence of the actual storm. A strong tornado struck very early on April 16, 1998, in the midst of downtown Nashville Tennessee. (Nashville is the site of the state capitol and a major tourist venue.) The incident was reported in detail by the major TV network news services, which were scheduled routinely that hour of the day. Extended interviews with Tennessee Governor Don Sundquist on the impact of the storm was included in this coverage. This particular tornado was responsible for one death, 60 injuries, and $100 million in damages.

PROTECTION STANDARDS

FEMA has established minimum requirements that both structure builders and manufacturers must meet to qualify as tornado shelters. FEMA Publication 320 (Taking Shelter from the Storm: Building a Safe Room Inside Your House) and FEMA Publication 361 (Design and Construction Guidance for Community Shelters) describe the criteria for private and public tornado shelters. FEMA defines these shelters as being designed to withstand the forces resulting from the maximum winds that are shown on the maps of peak wind velocities included in these publications. This calls for withstanding the impacts of 15 pound 2 x 4 boards impacting walls at a velocity of 100 miles per hour and roofs at 67 miles per hour. Copies of these publications are available at no charge by contacting FEMA on the Internet at www.fema.gov.us. These structures should interest every organization whose key employees operate at their residence. The destruction of such a site by a tornado can put at risk of damage or loss the information that is being worked on, along with the employees and the computing equipment.

The National Storm Shelter Association (NSSA) has gone a step further. It requires its member storm shelter manufacturers and constructors to produce tornado shelters that have been missile-impact and pressure tested. The results of these tests will have been subjected to engineering examination and evaluation by independent engineering testing and evaluation entities. The NSSA requires its member manufacturers to produce shelters that can withstand 250 mile-per-hour tornado winds. Also, the NSSA is developing a labeling program for the tornado shelters produced by its members. The program will be similar to those programs that certify the testing and compliance of products with standards for fire, burglar; and bullet resistance.

AN EXAMPLE

Remagen Corporation manufactures storm and security strong rooms that are fire, bullet, tornado, and burglar resistant. The stipulation is that these products be installed in accordance with the standard instructions. Jerry Hard, President of BankPak in Morrison Tennessee, says that he witnessed the initial assembly of the Remagen StormVault and was impressed with the simplicity of the procedure. It required about eight hours of work by two people who had "only nominal skills" and who used only a level, caulk gun, saw, electric drill, screwdriver, and small hammer.

Remagen's walk-in strong rooms and tornado doors were tested and evaluated at the Wind Engineering Research Center at Texas Technological University and have met FEMA standards for above-ground tornado shelters. Also, Remagen conducted in-house tests of its safe room products to prove structural strength and impact resistance. Videotape evidence shows its safe rooms being bombarded by steel scrap (wheels, axles, sheet metal), even a four-door automobile dropped twice from 30 feet above the roof of the StormCloset product without damaging it. The walls of Remagen's ClosetVault were impacted twice in these tests by a 2.5 ton crane magnet crashing with the force of an automobile traveling at 30 miles per hour. A 50-foot tall, 18-inch diameter hardwood tree dropped in these tests on the roof of the ClosetVault by a lumberjack resulted in only minor scratches to the outside of the safe room. The StormCloset High Velocity Impact Shield has resisted 38 cal., 357 magnum, full metal jacket, and 45 cal. pistol rounds that were fired from 15-foot range in accordance with Underwriters' Laboratories (UL) and U.S. National Institute of Justice testing procedures. Hard of Bank-Pak reports that he has independently carried out such procedures.

This type of in-house test provides the manufacturer with a high degree of confidence in the survivability of both the occupants and contents of these shelters during natural disasters. Engineering calculations will demonstrate that the occupants of a properly installed StormCloset would have had more than a 99 percent chance of survival with the safe room installed in the open, at a distance of 1.5 miles from ground zero at Hiroshima, Japan, during the 1945, 12.5-kiloton yield atomic bomb blast.

THE VALUE OF TESTING

Tornado missile impact tests and the in-house tests just mentioned permit judgments to be made about the ability of safe rooms to protect their contents from vandalism and burglar attack. Speed of access determines the success of a burglary attempt. In turn, this speed depends on two things. One is the burglar's skill in picking locks, of which, typically, there are three on a NSSA qualified tornado shelter. The other is the type of lock that is used on the shelter. These range from standard security locks to highly technical locks requiring several hours for an expert burglar to pick. No enclosure is impregnable, but a tornado shelter that resists penetration by small arms fire and 15-pound 2 x 4 boards impacting at a velocity of 100 miles per hour normal to the walls and doors certainly has the potential of slowing down, if not thwarting a burglar. Alarms are the key to any successful burglar defense.

Several manufacturers' patented strong rooms are assembled and anchored from the inside of the enclosure. This makes these rooms easy to install in tight places and in existing buildings. The Remagen products are designed to be finished inside and out with gypsum sheetrock. This type of construction provides fire resistance and standard finishes for the room. A UL-listed fire damped vent that is equipped with both a grille and a protective steel cowling provides for interior temperature and humidity control. Electrical conduit is routed throughout the walls and roof through prepunched holes in the modular steel components.

LIGHTNING STRIKE DEFLECTION

To place in context concerns that steel safe rooms are lightning targets and create unsafe environments for electronic equipment, the observations of two experts on the subject will be helpful. Michael Stringfellow, the Chief Scientist of the PowerCET Corporation, Santa Clara, California, has said that, "Metal structures are self-protecting and rarely a lightning hazard for the occupants. Even thin metal can safely conduct lightning currents without needing lightning rods or down conductors." Claude Donovan, retired Brigadier General, who was the project officer for the development of the U.S. Army's Bradley fighting vehicle, has pointed out that "... tanks and armored vehicles get hit by lightning all the time, and in many cases they are uploaded with their basic loads of ammunition, pyrotechnics, and fuel. There isn't even a conscious effort to make the ammo or packing materials conductors or insulators, so grounding must not be a big factor."

A steel safe room is the classic example of a Faraday box construction. Such an installation can protect the interior of an enclosure from the effects of ionization from a lightning strike. This principle is acknowledged intuitively when one continues to drive an automobile during a thunderstorm. Electrical engineers recommend that a safe room and all of the electrical circuits that serve it be grounded only to the house ground.

Note
The National Storm Shelter Association can be contacted at Post Office 41023, Lubbock, TX 78409; telephone toll-free: 877/700-6772; or communicate on the Internet at info@nssa.cc. The Association is affiliated with the Wind Engineering Research Center at the Texas Technological University

Source: June 2001 Vol. XXVIII, No. 12 "EDPACS The EDP Audit, Control, and Security Newsletter", Auerbach Publications, CRC Press LLC, 2000 NW Corporate Blvd., Boca Raton, FL 33431.