Because peace of mind starts with confidence in design and lasts through every school year.

The Big Question 

Are your storm shelters truly ready on day one and year after year? 

Many school districts invest heavily in the design and construction of storm shelters to protect students and staff during severe weather. But how do you ensure those shelters aren’t just compliant on paper, but operational when it matters most? 

The Short Answer:

True readiness means aligning design, construction, and operations through a full lifecycle approach—and we can help. Our team supports this process by reviewing plans early to ensure ICC 500 compliance, conducting structural observations and special inspections during construction to confirm critical elements are built as designed, performing annual evaluations to verify the storm shelter’s protective shell and systems remain operational, and delivering staff training that strengthens overall preparedness. 

These services can help reduce rework, avoid costly surprises, and bring peace of mind to school board members and administrators as they serve their students, staff and communities.  

Why It Matters

Storm shelters aren’t optional—they are critical life safety systems, and even a single missed anchor detail or an untrained staff member can turn a compliant structure into a liability. Embedding checks throughout the design, construction, and operational phases helps ensure shelters consistently protect lives and reputations, prevent costly emergency retrofits and budget overruns, and demonstrate accountability to owners, boards, and the communities they serve. 

Proof in Practice

Evaluations of storm shelters must be performed annually because ICC 500 explicitly requires it to ensure that storm shelters remain fully capable of providing life safety protection every time they are needed. 

Evaluations of storm shelters across north Texas have recently identified several with inoperable critical support systems!

Critical systems such as ventilation, lighting, sanitation, emergency power, and drainage must be maintained so they remain functional during a storm event. 

Ready to Act? Here Are Your Next Steps 

Book a Shelter Readiness Audit

Contact | Braun Intertec 

Why Partner With Us?

As an employee-owned firm with decades of experience, we combine engineering with community trust. Our team is NSSA (National Storm Shelter Association) trained and certified, and committed to a safety-first culture. 

Storm shelters are just one piece of the safety and performance puzzle. In our next post, we’ll tackle subsurface certainty how geophysics and smart drilling strategies can turn unknowns into confidence, saving time and money before you break ground. 

Check back soon for Part 2: “Subsurface Certainty: Geophysics + Drilling Methods"