Plan communications from inside the room
A safe room only buys time. You need a way to call for help and to know when the danger has passed.
How
- Run a phone or data cable into the room during construction; US safe room guidance (BASC) lists phone jacks among useful features. Seal any penetration so it keeps the room's rating.
- Keep a battery or hand-crank radio and a weather alert radio inside; Ready.gov lists both for emergency kits, and FEMA recommends a battery weather radio in tornado areas.
- Keep a charged handheld two-way radio and phone power bank inside, matching the household communications plan in the comms module.
- Metal and concrete walls block radio signals. Test your radios and phones from inside the closed room and add an external antenna lead through a protected penetration if needed.
- Agree a check-in plan: who you will contact, and how they will know you are inside.
Do these first
Sources
- Safe Rooms and Storm Shelters (Building America Solution Center). US DOE / Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, accessed 2026-11
- Build a Kit. Ready.gov (FEMA), accessed 2026-11
- Residential Safe Room fact sheet. FEMA, accessed 2026-11