When a hurricane approaches, most people prepare to leave or shelter at home. The people who run emergency operations centers, hospitals, shelters, schools and public safety buildings prepare to stay and work. These critical facilities have to remain safe and functional through the storm and in the days that follow, which puts special demands on how their windows and doors are protected.
Why Critical Facilities Need a Higher Standard
For an ordinary building, the goal of hurricane protection is to limit damage. For a critical facility, the goal is continuity. If debris breaks a window in an emergency operations center, rain can disable communications equipment. If a hospital loses part of its envelope, patients may need to be moved during the storm. A school used as a shelter must protect hundreds of people who have nowhere else to go.
Building codes reflect this. Codes based on the International Building Code assign higher risk categories to essential facilities, which increases the wind loads they must be designed for. Impact standards include enhanced protection levels for these buildings. In Florida, essential facilities outside the High Velocity Hurricane Zone must meet ASTM E1996 Missile Level E, the most severe large missile test in the standard. Our article on ASTM E1996 missile levels explains what that involves.
Types of Critical Facilities
The exact definition varies by code and jurisdiction, but critical or essential facilities usually include:
- Emergency operations centers (EOCs) and 911 or communications centers
- Hospitals and health care facilities with emergency treatment
- Fire, police and rescue stations and emergency vehicle garages
- Designated emergency shelters, often located in schools
- Utilities needed for emergency response, such as power and water facilities
Schools, retirement communities, government offices and residence halls may not always be classified as essential facilities, but many owners choose to protect them to a similar level because of the people inside and their role in community recovery.
Challenges Unique to These Buildings
No time to install shutters
Staff at critical facilities are busiest in the days before landfall. Installing removable panels on a large building can take many hours and many people, often on ladders and lifts in worsening weather. Permanent or always-in-place protection removes that task. As Exeter put it in its original product literature: why waste valuable time installing and closing hurricane shutters at your facility when you could be helping others?
People need light and visibility
Facilities that operate through a storm need daylight, especially if the power fails, and staff need to see conditions outside. Solid shutters turn a building into a dark box. See-through protection keeps rooms usable. Read how see-through hurricane shutters work.
Life safety and egress
Some openings must remain usable as exits or rescue openings. Dormitories, shelters and patient areas may need shutters that open from inside with a simple release. See hurricane shutters and emergency egress.
Security every day of the year
Public buildings face vandalism, break-ins and in some cases more serious threats. A barrier that also works as a security screen adds value outside hurricane season.
Planning Window and Door Protection
- Confirm the building's classification. Work with your architect or engineer to establish the risk category and any essential facility requirements that apply.
- Survey every opening. Record window and door sizes, wall construction, how each opening is used, and whether it must open for maintenance or escape.
- Set the performance requirements. Identify the required impact level (often Level E for essential facilities) and the design pressures for each opening.
- Choose protection that matches operations. Permanent barriers suit openings that never need to be cleared; hinged barriers suit openings that need cleaning access; egress barriers suit escape routes.
- Plan maintenance and drills. Include shutters in annual inspections and in storm preparation checklists so staff know how any operable units work.
- Explore funding. Mitigation projects for public facilities are sometimes eligible for state or federal hazard mitigation funding. Check with your state emergency management agency.
After the Storm: Recovery and Reoccupancy
Protection does not end when the wind drops. Critical facilities are often the first buildings expected to reopen, whether as a command center, a treatment site or a distribution point for supplies. Shutters that must be unbolted and carried away delay that process, especially when staff are exhausted and debris covers the grounds. Barriers that stay in place and let light through allow a building to return to normal use immediately, while still offering security when windows or doors elsewhere in the community have been damaged. After each storm, inspect barriers, anchors and hinges, clear debris from tracks and sills, and record any damage for repair before the next event.
Real-World Examples
STORM SHIELD Hurricane Barriers were selected for the State of Florida Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee and for the Dade County Emergency Operations Center in Miami. In Bay County, Florida, FEMA mitigation money allocated after Hurricane Opal was used to install STORM SHIELD barriers on schools and municipal buildings. Local officials highlighted that the barriers stay up 365 days a year, can be seen through, and are easy enough to open that children can get out. You can read these stories in our news archive.
How STORM SHIELD Fits
STORM SHIELD Hurricane Barriers use a perforated steel or stainless steel infill designed for ASTM E1886/E1996 Level "E" essential facilities protection, in welded aluminum frames. Fixed Mount units stay in place around the clock, Side Hinge and Top Hinge units open for maintenance, and security egress units open from inside with a single-point release. The perforated panel lets in light, preserves views and reduces solar heat gain, so the barriers earn their keep every day. Exeter Architectural Products is an approved sole source supplier and is listed on the Federal GSA Register.
Conclusion
Critical facilities carry a responsibility that goes beyond protecting property. Their window and door protection should meet enhanced impact standards, require little or no storm preparation, keep spaces usable and allow safe exit. Planning early, with every opening surveyed and the right performance level set, gives the people inside the best chance of riding out the storm and getting back to work quickly. To discuss a facility project, request specifications or request a quote.