Safest room in the house

Even with the most professional construction or retrofit work you could still lose much of your home in the worst tornado, but if you've prepared a sturdy "safe room," chances are, you and your family will survive unscathed.

When constructed according to Federal Emergency Management Agency plans, so-called safe rooms provide protection from winds of up to 250 miles per hour and against 100 mile-per-hour projectiles.

Researchers, emergency response teams, and others on the scene up after a tornado often find an interior room of a house still standing when the rest of the home above ground has been destroyed.

That means closets, bathrooms, and small storage rooms are ideal retrofitting candidates. Not only are they often centrally located, they retain an ongoing function other than merely providing occasional storm protection. Also, such rooms typically have only one door and no windows. Bathrooms have the added advantage of a water supply and toilet.

Tornado safe room plans generally call for small, five-square-feet-per-person reinforced wood-frame, concrete or masonry rooms. For protection from hurricanes, which last longer than tornadoes, you may consider the comfort of the occupants and double the square footage per person.

FEMA's plans are based on a maximum 64 square feet of space with a maximum wall length of 8 feet for any single wall. For hurricane protection, a shelter of that size can accommodate up to six people in reasonable comfort.

Safe rooms cost approximately $3,000 to $6,000 in a new home and 20 percent more ($3,600 to $7,200) to retrofit an existing home, but the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's special Federal Housing Administration-insured loans can loan you up to $5,000 in added-on financing to cover the cost of building a wind shelter.

Bunker down

Another option, currently marketed as a terrorist turnoff, is a $48,000 bunker that has the U.S. military's attention.

"Your home can physically fall on top of the unit and there would be no more problems than a scratch on the paint," boasts designer Jorge Villa, a University of Miami mechanical engineering graduate with majors in civil and industrial engineering.

That should just about take care of the largest tornado wind-borne projectile.

Villa's Homestead, FL-based U.S. Bunkers offers a diamond shaped 13- to 18-ton, water tight, fireproof, rustproof, bulletproof shelter, the Multi Purpose Platform Bunker (MPPB), made of 1/4- to 3/4-inch rebar reinforced concrete, steel, a super mix of polymer fibers and a "boat-like" Fiberglas interior.

An above-ground Guardian model, starting at a cool $34,500, looks like a buff moon lander with hefty steel supports. At a foot thick, seamless and windowless, the bunkers can be tripped out with host of features including an air ventilation system, biochemical filters, heat/air conditioning, video surveillance with a monitor/TV and VHS recorder/player, 12 and 120 volt lights and outlets, cable, phone and Internet hookups, battery-backed solar panels, water and fuel tanks, refrigerator, portable potty, first aid kit, an electric entryway and escape hatch. Power packs can run the ventilation system for 12 hours or more after a power failure. Add benches, beds, desks and shelving and it's home sweet survival home.

With an interior diameter of 9 feet, a height of 6 feet 4 inches, the shelters offer 76 square feet of living space designed to hold six adults and when you aren't cowering from a storm, the bunker can double as a playhouse, sauna-steam room, temporary guest quarters or a hide-out in the not so brave, new security-conscious world.