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UDC believes in the shelter-in-place philosophy. Sheltering in place or (SIP) is a protocol that dictates an occupant remain in the place where they are in the event of a contingency. All residential buildings designed after January 1, 2010 will have at least the minimum short term protection (ST-1A Shelter Design) for their occupants. Case studies and research has indicated that a building occupant’s (especially those in residential buildings such as single family and multifamily dwellings) probability of being injured or killed in a contingency event increase if they flee their building. This probability increases and decreases in relation to three variables: 1) Type of Threat, 2) Warning & Preparation time and 3) Population or number of evacuating occupants from a area or region. Since most contingencies occur with less than 24 hours notice, it is important for occupants to be ready to leave immediately. However, if this level of readiness can not be achieved or maintained, the warning time is less than 24 hours, evacuating numbers begin flooding the avenues of escape, and if your structure is designed to resist the effects of the threat, it is important to shelter in place to optimize the occupants chances of survival. Although most buildings do not offer adequate protection from all events, some do offer considerable amount of protection in regards to most threats.

It is important to understand that not every shelter design can handle every threat and that all threats vary in intensity and frequency so preparing for every known threat would not be cost effective to do. When deciding if you require protection, and to what degree, it is important to understand that you must perform a Threat Analysis to, identify threats, determine frequency and probability of occurrence, and determine magnitude or strength of the forces associated with the threat. These three answers will allow you to select the proper degree of protection for your area and occupant needs.

UDC has mandated that all residential buildings, whether used in a single family or multifamily application, be designed to offer minimum protection from established high frequency/high probability threats in the environment were the building is located. These threats can be of a natural or man made nature.

Acclimate Weather Conditions

Tornadoes

Hurricanes

Volcanic Eruptions

Earthquakes

Drought

Famine/ Disease

Flooding

Tsunami

Wildfire

Solar event/ Solar Flare

Celestial Impact Event

Celestial Biological Release

Polar Shift

Climate/Environmental Change

Gamma Ray Burst

Naturally Occurring Threats

Man Made or Influenced Threats

Radiological Accident

Nuclear Accident

Biological Accident

Chemical Accident

Gas Explosion

Electrical Blackout/ Power Loss

Accidental/ Non Intentional

Terrorism

Theater Wide Warfare

         -Conventional Warfare

         -Chemical Warfare

         -Nuclear Warfare

         -Biological Warfare

Radiological Attack

Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP)

Home Intrusion/Forced Entry

Explosive Blast

Intentional & Deliberate

Sheltering systems are designed around: 1) Type of threat. 2) Frequency and Probability. 3) Strength and effects of threat. 4) Occupant number. 5) Occupant minimum Safe Shelter Time (SST).

Sheltering Systems are broken down into three categories by type (SST):

Type:  ST (Short Term Sheltering- 1 to 7 days)

Type:  MT (Medium Term Sheltering- 1 to 30 days)

Type: LT (Long Term Sheltering- 365+ days)

Categories are also broken down by Class (Application):

Class: 1 (Single Family- 1 to 5 Occupants)

Class: 2 (Multi family- 5 to 50 Occupants)

Class: 3 (Community- 50+ Occupants)

And Class is broken down by Configuration (Design Program):

Configuration: A

(Natural events of a local nature such as tornados and hurricanes).

Configuration: B

(Natural & man made events of a local nature such as weather related, accidents and home intrusion).

Configuration: C

(Natural & man made events of a local & regional nature such as weather related, accidents and war or acts of terrorism).

Configuration: D

(Natural, celestial & man made events of a local, regional andor global nature such as weather related, climate, accidents and war or acts of terrorism).

Surviving the contingency is paramount and a well designed sheltering system specifically designed to meet or exceed the threats identifies by a Threat Analysis for the area the building is located is essential to accomplish this. However, surviving the actual event is only the beginning. You most also know what to do after the event has passed? There can be, and usually are, other dilemmas awaiting the occupants after they emerge from there protective shelters. The aftermath can be more traumatizing than the actual event itself and for that, the occupants must prepare themselves mentally and physically to continue to survive until a level of normalcy can be achieved. Depending on the nature of the contingency event, occupants can be faced with a wide range of obstacles to overcome. The most important thing is to remember to remain calm and focused on your task. Understand that in these conditions there are only four primary things that are important: 1) Adequate shelter. 2) Clean air. 3) Clean Water. 4) Food. With the loss of adequacy of any of these four, the probability of death will increase very rapidly. In order to facilitate a favorable outcome after a contingency event, it is important to educate and prepare to a minimum degree to survive and encourage others to survive. UDC offers instruction to do this and is considered to be part of our shelter design criteria. While survival is ultimately in the hands of the individual, we can only design and configure the sheltering system to optimize your chances, however, ultimately it is the individual and their knowledge alone that will allow for increase probability of survival. We have designed and routinely update survival manuals that will allow for mental preparedness. These manuals are a collection of widely acceptance techniques and guidelines used by survival specialist for both civilian and military applications.

There are three states of readiness a Survival Shelter has:

State 1

Pre-Event state- This is the state were occupants prepare for an event. This preparedness can be tailored to threat frequency and probability and can change to parallel the changing threat level. State 1 is the point where occupants become familiar with survival protocols and acquire and maintain equipment readiness, air filtration equipment, and food & water supply. This is the time to review and conduct drills in order to increase occupant confidence. This will greatly enhance the occupant’s ability to perform and cope with contingency event, if and when one occurs.

State 2

Event occurring state (also referred to as “button up”)- This is where a threat has been identified and the facility is activated. All occupants should proceed to the facility and when all are accounted for and before the event strikes, the facility should be sealed and made ready for the event to maximize its protective ability.

State 3

Post Event State- This is the state that follows the event. Depending on the nature of the threat and magnitude. Occupants will have to decide whether it is safe or not safe to exit the facility. This can be the most challenging state, sense it will involve post survival strategies and/or recovery. This is where training and awareness will be the difference between continued survival or death.