If the big one blows in, he's staying home

Bob Payne is preparing for a hurricane, all right - a garage/shelter reserved for his family, three huge dogs, a pickup truck and some neighbors.

By LAURA HEINAUER

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 19, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- Stand inside Bob Payne's 17-foot-tall steel and concrete detached garage, and it quickly becomes clear that he learned one thing from his days as an Eagle Scout.

Be Prepared.

The poured-concrete and steel-wired walls surrounding him stand firm at 8 inches thick. The heavy five-eighths-inch plywood roof above him is reinforced with a steel cover of stronger-than-average 26 gauge. The two garage doors that are supposed to be able to withstand 120 mph winds are equipped with a long 3-inch channel and three-quarter-inch bolts for extra support.

Payne, 56, started to build his garage at 5512 60th Way N in April. Three months later, the retired contractor and current Red Cross volunteer admits he "might have overdone it."

The idea was something Payne had been toying with for several years, but it wasn't until he joined the Red Cross a year and a half ago that he became more aware of the shelter shortage in the area.

A self-taught engineer, Payne said he followed the county code and used books to design the 32- by 36-foot structure. He has spent about $20,000 on the project so far. The structure is more than $8,000 over budget but strong enough, he believes, to withstand a Category 5 hurricane, or a tornado with similar force. It can hold about 50 people.

"It'll be one of the safest buildings in Pinellas County that I'm aware of," Payne said. "Everything is anchored 10 times more than it needs to be."

The garage is being built to exceed the standard code requirements for homes built in Pinellas County, which must meet normal hurricane resistance standards, said the director of the Pinellas County Building Department, Robert Nagin. It has passed all of its inspections up to the framing stage, and has more reinforcements than codes require, he said.

"Is it going to be a strong structure? Sure," Nagin said. "Can you call it a hurricane shelter? That depends. By our records it has met and gone beyond the minimum standards, but we're not going to go out and slap a hurricane shelter sticker on it."

The National Weather Service has forecast 11 tropical storms this season, seven of those becoming hurricanes and three becoming major hurricanes with sustained winds surpassing 110 mph.

The numbers are a little above average -- numbers Payne doesn't want to take a chance on.

Indeed, if, during a hurricane, a tornado happens to spin off and come straight for his house, there's a 10- by 10-foot air-conditioned "storm room" in the corner, to be equipped with a television and recliners. And in case of flooding or power failure? Well, there will be a generator and an electric sand bagging machine on site, too.

"We are way overdue," he said gravely. "I hope it never happens ... but we are way overdue."

Family members and several neighbors have already been invited to the party Payne has planned for what he sees as the inevitable. Space is also reserved for his three Old English mastiffs and extended cab pickup. Anything to accommodate more people with the remaining space will be done, Payne said.

"I've got three kids and five grandkids in the area. They come first. That's why I built it," he said. "People have been telling me, 'I'll bring the beer.' But I keep telling them someone's got to bring the steak. You can't live on beer."

It has been 15 years since Elena, the last hurricane that came close to the area, hung precariously off the west coast of Florida. At the time, Payne worked for the Red Cross as a paramedic at the Northeast High School shelter. During that storm, his wife stayed at a fire station and his dogs stayed in their car.

"It was crazy. There were 70-year-old people sleeping on kids' desks," he said. "If one comes, I wouldn't want to be stuck in a shelter. They just group people there so they'll be easier to find if they die. I'd rather die at home."

Remembering the coast-to-cost traffic jam on Interstate 4 last year as Hurricane Floyd threatened Florida is reason enough to make sure there is an alternative to evacuation, said Payne's neighbor, Ernest Palmer. Palmer, 31, who has been helping Payne build the shelter, said he might start a business to build similar "hurricane-proof rooms" in houses.

"Of course, it doesn't have to be something as extravagant as this," Palmer said. "But if people chipped in and every neighborhood had something like this or if people wanted to spend a couple thousand dollars to do a room in their house, we could do it for them. It's worth it if you can prevent catastrophe. I mean, what kind of price can you put on your family?"

The contractors and builders association is working with the Institute on Business and Home Safety -- an initiative of the insurance industry to reduce losses due to natural disasters -- on experimental designs for hurricane-proof rooms in residential structures, said Rodney Fischer, executive director of the contractors and builders association of Pinellas County.

Three experimental hurricane-resistant houses are under construction: a $140,000 house built by Hoyt Homes, a $430,000 model built by the Lehigh Group, and a $740,000 house built by Mark Maconi Homes are under construction.

"We have the technology to build you a structure you could drop an atom bomb on," Fischer said. "We support people who take it upon themselves to build stronger homes, but we don't think it should be mandated. People need to balance reasonable safety with reasonable affordability."

Payne said his experiment in hurricane-proofing will not be a waste even if the big one doesn't come any time soon.

"My wife is making me keep the dogs in the storm room now," he said. "I've got a lot of toys to store in here, too. The county asked me why it needs to be so big. I said, 'Hey, big boys need big toys.' "

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