No Safe Room? Expert Shows You Where To Go In Case Of Disaster

Even though safe rooms are becoming more common, relatively few people have one and will still need to take shelter in their homes during severe weather.

So, how do you decide where to go in your home?

Tim Lovell is the director of Tulsa Partners, an agency that encourages people to be ready for disasters.

His first recommendation for any house, "Of course, the first thing we encourage people to do is get a safe room if they can afford one."

But knowing most people will be in their homes, we looked around one house for the best and worst options for shelter.

The worst place, Lovell said, is a large room with windows.

"What you're really trying to avoid is debris coming through the windows and harming you," he said.

2/14/2013 Related Story: New Ways To Reinforce Your Home Against Extreme Oklahoma Winds

But this house, like so many, doesn't really have much interior space that's completely away from windows.

Lovell checked every room for the possibilities and found closets that were either too crowded for people to get inside or ones with doors that wouldn't hold up to the wind.

"You need to look at your house and see what you can do to strengthen it," Lovell said.

The house has an interior hallway that he said was one of the better choices.

The bathroom, he said, is usually a good choice, unless it's on an outside wall.

"The window creates a problem in terms of that. And the reason people usually think of bathrooms is because of the tub, and the bathrooms are usually the interior of the house, so they have protection that way," Lovell said.

The house has one other weakness people often miss: a garage door that isn't reinforced. That, in a storm, could compromise the entire building.

For that reason, Lovell recommends looking into strengthening your garage door.

There are designs for more disaster resistant homes, but experts say nothing beats a safe room or below-ground shelter.

Go here for tips on retrofitting your home.