An above-ground residential safe room is pictured amid debris from the EF-5 tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri, on May 22, 2011.
Submitted photo
Hoosier homeowners who want to build a tornado safe room can apply for a state rebate.
The Indiana Department of Homeland Security is now accepting applications for its Residential Safe Room Program. From July 1 to July 31, residents can apply for a rebate to install safe rooms in their homes.
Twenty-five randomly selected applicants will receive up to 75% reimbursement, with a $5,000 max, for their safe room installation costs, according to the agency.
A safe room — a hardened structure specifically designed to meet Federal Emergency Management Agency criteria and provide “near-absolute protection” in extreme weather events — can survive winds as high as 250 mph. It can be an interior room, space within a building or an entirely separate structure designed to protect occupants for events that normally last approximately two hours, state officials said.
For the purposes of Residential Safe Room Program program, the term “safe room” includes a prefabricated above- or below-ground residential shelter that meets or exceeds guidelines stated in the most recent versions of FEMA Publications 320 (Taking Shelter from the Storm) and FEMA 361 (Design and Construction Criteria for Community Safe Rooms), as well as ICC 500 (Standards for the Design and Construction of Storm Shelters).
The IDHS Residential Safe Room Program was developed in 2015 by the IDHS Hazard Mitigation Assistance Program to provide a rebate for the installation of safe rooms for Indiana residences. Indiana provides this rebate program through FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Grant Program.
To learn more and apply for the Residential Safe Room Program, go to on.in.gov/safe-room.
