47.5 MB - The Whole Building Design Guide

3.6 REMEDIAL WORK ON EXISTINGFACILITIESAmerican Red Cross (ARC) Publication4496, Standards for Hurricane EvacuationShelter Selection (2002) providesinformation regarding assessing existingbuildings for use as hurricane shelters.Unless a facility has been specificallydesigned for use as a shelter, it shouldonly be used as a shelter of last resort, andeven then, only if it meets the criteria givenin ARC 4496.Many existing critical facilities need to strengthen theirstructural or building envelope components. The reasonsfor this are the deterioration that has occurredover time, or inadequate facility strength to resist current designlevel winds. It is recommended that building owners havea vulnerability assessment performed by a qualified architecturaland engineering team. A vulnerability assessment should beperformed for all facilities older than 5 years. However, as illustratedby Figure 3-30 and the case of Garden Park Medical Centerdiscussed in Section 4.2, an assessment is recommended for all facilitieslocated in areas where the basic windspeed is greater than 90 mph (even if thefacility is younger than five years). It is particularlyimportant to perform vulnerabilityassessments on critical facilities located inhurricane-prone and tornado-prone regions.Components that typically make buildingsconstructed before the early 1990s vulnerableto high winds are weak non-load-bearingmasonry walls, poorly connected precast concretepanels, long-span roof structures withlimited uplift resistance (e.g., at gyms), inadequatelyconnected roof decks, weak glasscurtain walls, building envelope, and exterior-mounted equipment.Although the technical solutions to these problems are notdifficult, the cost of the remedial work is typically quite high. If3-132 MAKING CRITICAL FACILITIES SAFE FROM High Wind