LIHU’E – Kaua’i County is the first municipality in the country to give residents property tax breaks for adding hurricane-resistant rooms to their homes. A sporty steel model which can double as a storage shed in calm weather and be
LIHU’E – Kaua’i County is the first municipality in the country to give
residents property tax breaks for adding hurricane-resistant rooms to their
homes.
A sporty steel model which can double as a storage shed in calm
weather and be erected in one afternoon can be yours for between $4,000 and
$8,000.
And an average homeowner can save between $150 and $200 on his tax
bill by installing a “safe room” within a home, if it meets county
specifications.
The county’s trailblazing has gained the attention of James
Witt, director of FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). Witt mentioned
the County Council and Mayor Maryanne Kusaka’s initiative at a Project Impact
Summit in Washington, D.C. earlier this month, according to Mark Marshall,
Kaua’i Civil Defense administrator.
Marshall said 1,600 people attended the
summit. Project Impact is a FEMA effort to encourage communities and
individuals to prevent or minimizing damage in the case of catastrophic
weather. Federal studies show that for every dollar spent in mitigation
efforts, $2 is saved through less property damage after a tornado, hurricane,
flooding or other act of God.
On Kaua’i, some homeowners may qualify for
county loans to assist in the installation of safe rooms, with money at between
1 percent and 5 percent interest.
A pair of FEMA publications have
information on specifications for qualifying safe rooms. The first is “Taking
Shelter from the Storm: Building a Safe Room Inside Your House” (FEMA
Publication 320), which can be downloaded (minus construction plans offered in
the printed version) from www.fema.gov/mit/tsfs01.htm. It can also be ordered
complete by calling FEMA toll-free at 1-888-565-3896.
The complete document
includes basics of in-house safe-room shelter design, construction plans,
materials and mainland construction-cost estimates.
The other document is
FEMA Publication 361, the first edition of “Design and Construction Guidance
for Community Shelters.” It also describes shelters “intended to provide
near-absolute protection from the high winds expected during tornadoes and
hurricanes and from associated flying debris, such as wood studs, that
tornadoes and hurricanes usually create,” according to the FEMA Web site.
Unlike the small, in-residence shelters addressed by FEMA 320, the
shelters described in FEMA 361 are designed to protect large numbers of people,
such as occupants of an office building or the residents of a
community.
Residential safe rooms in most cases mandate new construction,
according to Doug Haigh, chief of the Department of Public Works’ Building
Division.
A claim form for safe-room exemption is available at the county
Department of Finance Real Property Assessment Division, for rooms in homes not
in tsunami inundation, flood or surge zones, or portions of the island
susceptible to flooding, explained Eugene Jimenez, deputy director of
finance.
A certification of design and construction, signed by a licensed
architect or structural engineer, is needed to let the county know that the
safe room is, indeed, safe, Haigh said.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis
can be reached at pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
