Hurricane-Proofing Schools for Student Safety and Storm Shelter Compliance
In this Q+A, Dr. Neall Digert, Vice President of Innovation & Market Development at Kingspan Light + Air, shares valuable expertise on proactive measures schools can take to prepare for hurricanes. Digert discusses common structural vulnerabilities and explores product advancements that enhance resilience, ensuring safer, more durable learning environments.
How are school buildings most vulnerable to hurricanes?
The primary factors affecting school buildings during hurricanes are wind and water-related damage. Wind damage typically results from high-velocity winds and wind-driven debris that can breach a building’s weather-resistant envelope, including fenestration systems such as doors, windows, and skylights. Water ingress can also occur due to failures in the fenestration system or the building’s exterior walls or roofing, allowing rainwater to penetrate.
What is the role of local building codes in hurricane preparedness?
Local building codes play a vital role in hurricane preparedness by setting the standards for building materials and construction practices. It’s essential that all impact-resistant products meet or exceed local building codes, such as the ICC 500 standards, to provide adequate protection for school buildings during severe weather events.
ICC 500 is an ANSI-approved standard that provides minimum design and construction requirements for storm shelters that serve as a safe refuge from storms producing high winds, hurricanes, and tornadoes. It contains design requirements for the main wind-resisting structural system and components and cladding of these shelters, and includes basic occupant life safety and health requirements that address means of egress, lighting, sanitation, ventilation, fire safety, and floor space.
How do advanced daylighting solutions contribute to building resilience?
Advanced daylighting solutions can enhance a school’s resilience in several ways. First, these systems need to be capable of withstanding the pressures of a hurricane, ensuring that the building’s protective envelope remains intact during the storm. To achieve this, it’s essential to incorporate fenestration products engineered for both cyclic wind loading and debris impact resistance. By ensuring the building envelope remains intact, these solutions contribute to the life safety of occupants sheltering within.
Tubular Daylighting Devices by Solatube International, a Kingspan Light + Air company, offer a unique solution by delivering natural light to interior spaces where traditional windows or skylights are impractical or impossible. As the only roof-top daylighting system in the world compliant with ICC 500 and FEMA P-361 for use in storm shelters and safe rooms, the Solatube 750DS ensures that even in EF-5 tornado territory, buildings can remain naturally lit in the event of a utility or backup power failure—without requiring additional penetration protection.
Building resilience into educational facilities is essential as schools increasingly serve as both learning environments and community refuges during severe weather events. Proactive planning, adoption of advanced building technologies and compliance with local building codes lay the foundation for safer, stronger facilities. By investing in durable, cost-effective solutions—such as impact-resistant windows or ICC 500-compliant toplighting—architects and school districts can safeguard both occupants and property, ultimately reducing long-term repair and replacement costs.
