Is Your Rec Center Ready to Become a Storm Shelter?

Rec centers can serve as emergency shelters in times of crisis. Is your center prepared? [Image via Shutterstock].
Rec centers can serve as emergency shelters in times of crisis. Is your center prepared? [Image via Shutterstock].

During the past few months, you’ve no doubt read about recreation centers in Texas and Florida used as temporary shelters to house displaced residents. The first temporary shelters to open in Dallas for evacuees from Hurricane Harvey in August were the Walnut Hill Recreation Center and the Tommie Allen Recreation Center. Not long after, the University of Florida opened its Southwest Recreation Center on a first-come, first-served basis to people in the path of September’s Hurricane Irma.

When talking about recreation centers serving a community in times of crisis, there are two types of “shelters” to consider: One is shelter in the sense of protection and survival via a hardened structure — basically, a bunker. Such facilities are highly regulated at the federal level and codified with defined standards. There also is shelter in the sense of temporarily housing the displaced, which is the situation in which recreation facility officials are most likely to find themselves.

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