The Federal Emergency Management Agency is encouraging builders to make safe rooms and other disaster-resistant features standard in their new homes.

And now, the Federal Housing Administration has stepped forward with a program that will permit buyers to borrow up to $5,000 to pay for their in-house shelters.

Under the new FHA initiative, buyers can borrower up to $5,000 more than the amount needed to purchase the house to cover the cost of installing a safe room that is designed in accordance with FEMA guidelines and also are consistent with the national performance criteria for tornado shelters.

Safe rooms are part of an on-going FEMA program called Project Impact to shift the focus from simply responding to disasters to taking actions in advance to protect lives and property before disasters strike. The rooms are said to be the single most effective way for people to protect themselves from high winds and flying debris during a high-win storm.

Research at the Wind Engineering Research Center at Texas Tech University has shown that homes with concrete walls are less likely to experience heavy damage during such turbulence. The findings were used to build national standards for storm shelters.

According to FEMA, every dollar spent on prevention saves at least two in disaster recovery costs.

Safe rooms are small and windowless. They are completely enclosed in concrete walls, floor, ceiling -- to create a solid structure. Often, they are made with a new wall system known as insulating concrete forms. ICFs are polystyrene forms that are stacked like blocks and then filled with concrete to create a solid structure.

"With a safe room, you have a space within your home that will resist 250 mph, tornado- force winds as well as wind-blown debris," says Lionel Lemay, director of residential programs for the Portland Cement Association.

Safe rooms are best inside a house, where they can be more accessible, according to the PCA. But they also can work as an addition to the dwelling. The difference between a safe room and a storm cellar, the traditional method of protection, is that they can function as usable space year-round.

Just ask Beth Bartlett and her mother, who incorporated a cast-in-place concrete shelter into a walk-in closet when they remodeled their home in Del City, Okla. Not longer thereafter, a monster tornado roared through their area, killing 42 people and damaging more than 7,000 houses. The category F-5 storm, the most severe, had winds estimated at over 300 miles per hour, but the Beth and her mom escaped unscathed.

To help home builders and owners build economical safe rooms for new and existing houses, FEMA (800-480-2520) has a free, 25-page booklet that outlines the basics of safe room design, including construction plans, materials and cost estimates. PCA (888-333-4840) also has a no-cost booklet specifically for ICF construction. Also See:

Published: January 31, 2000

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When Lew Sichelman first started writing about housing in 1969, he was the youngest real estate writer in the country. Now, 37 years later, he's one of the oldest -- and most decorated. He has been rated the top housing columnist in the country by the National Association of Realtors as well as by his peers in the National Association of Real Estate Editors. Indeed, NAREE has recognized his work on numerous occasions. One year - due to his advancing age, he can't recall which one - he earned top honors in the annual NAREE Journalism Contest in three out of the four major writing categories. It was the first time one writer has won so many NAREE awards in a single year. Known for his ability to make even the most difficult topics understandable, Sichelman also has been honored by the National Association of Home Builders and the Mortgage Bankers Association. He began providing in-depth coverage of and consumer-oriented information about housing and housing finance at the Washington Daily News, where he was real estate editor. He held that same position for nine more years at the Washington Star, which purchased the News in 1972. The Star, a so-called "writer's newspaper" which also had the misfortune of being an evening paper, was put out of its misery in 1981, and Sichelman, who had begun self-syndicating his column in 1978, decided to become a full-time columnist. Today, his column, "The Housing Scene," is distributed by United Media to newspapers throughout the country. He also is on the staff of National Mortgage News, an independent newspaper which is considered the bible of the mortgage business. And he writes for numerous other publications, including MarketWatch.com, where he answers readers questions once a week, Sports Illustrated (don't ask), RealtyTimes.com, BigBuilder and others. Sichelman is married, the father of five and grandfather of eleven.