Evacuation Center Design Guidelines
THE EVACUATION CENTER
An evacuation center is a place designed and constructed to protect people living in vicinity during an emergency, especially during natural disasters such as typhoons, flooding, and earthquake. The level of occupant protection provided by a space specifically designed as a shelter is intended to be much greater than the protection provided by buildings that comply with the minimum requirements of building codes. The model building codes do not provide design and construction criteria for life safety for sheltering, nor do they provide design criteria for withstanding strong hazardous events. The primary difference in a building’s structural system when designed for use as an evacuation center or a community shelter, versus conventional use, is the magnitude of the wind forces, amount of rainfall and the predicted earthquakes it is designed to withstand, with consideration of the population in the vicinity it intends to protect.
The risk assessment to identify likely threats is a prerequisite practice to certify the need and design criteria for community shelters. Events that might warrant a shelter include (but are not limited to): * Natural events such as tornadoes, typhoons, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc.; * Public disturbances such as riots and/or terrorism threats; or * Life threatening accidents such as the release of chemical or biological contaminants.
A collection of factors to be considered in the risk assessment process could include the type of hazard event, probability of event occurrence, severity of the event, probable consequences of a hazard, and a benefits/cost analysis of options.
Key Design Considerations: * Reaction time (travel distance to refuge and activation time for emergency support systems). * Duration of occupancy * Privacy * Security (secure storage, doors, locks, windows/view ports) * Isolation areas for ill or contaminated occupants or equipment * The evacuation center size
An evacuation center is a place designed and constructed to protect people living in vicinity during an emergency, especially during natural disasters such as typhoons, flooding, and earthquake. The level of occupant protection provided by a space specifically designed as a shelter is intended to be much greater than the protection provided by buildings that comply with the minimum requirements of building codes. The model building codes do not provide design and construction criteria for life safety for sheltering, nor do they provide design criteria for withstanding strong hazardous events. The primary difference in a building’s structural system when designed for use as an evacuation center or a community shelter, versus conventional use, is the magnitude of the wind forces, amount of rainfall and the predicted earthquakes it is designed to withstand, with consideration of the population in the vicinity it intends to protect.
The risk assessment to identify likely threats is a prerequisite practice to certify the need and design criteria for community shelters. Events that might warrant a shelter include (but are not limited to): * Natural events such as tornadoes, typhoons, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc.; * Public disturbances such as riots and/or terrorism threats; or * Life threatening accidents such as the release of chemical or biological contaminants.
A collection of factors to be considered in the risk assessment process could include the type of hazard event, probability of event occurrence, severity of the event, probable consequences of a hazard, and a benefits/cost analysis of options.
Key Design Considerations: * Reaction time (travel distance to refuge and activation time for emergency support systems). * Duration of occupancy * Privacy * Security (secure storage, doors, locks, windows/view ports) * Isolation areas for ill or contaminated occupants or equipment * The evacuation center size