Quonset Huts As Disaster Relief Structures

Every year, millions of people around the globe are impacted by devastating disasters both natural and manmade. Entire communities can be devastated by a terrible disaster and recovery is two-fold, taking care of people in the immediate aftermath and rebuilding the community to be stronger.

Immediately following a natural disaster, the basic need for shelter is often the most important and difficult problem. Quonset huts have become a go-to choice to provide people with quick and durable shelter in these times of need.

Easy To Build After Disaster: Haitian Church’s Recovery

• Easy to Build – The simplicity of a prefabricated building eliminates the need for expensive construction crews, allowing locals in any country to assemble the relief structures themselves, which saves both time and money.

This is exactly how several steel relief structures in Haiti were erected. The Assembly of God Church in Washington State purchased three SteelMaster buildings and donated them to the affected area after a devastating earthquake.

A group of about 50 people put the buildings up, one is used as a church and the other two are used for schools. The bulk of the construction was completed in one month and the entire project was finished in three months. Crews didn’t need to hunt for any specialized tools—just basic ones easily found at a local hardware store. SteelMaster provided all the nuts and bolts required to assemble the shell of the building, ensuring a smooth and straightforward construction process.

Quickly Delivered On-Site: Clinic-in-a-Can In the Philippines

• Portability & Logistics – Headquartered in North America, our prefabricated buildings can be stacked into a shipping container and sent anywhere in the world. In some cases, the shipping container itself can be turned into a base for the structure.

When a typhoon devastated the Philippines, Clinic-in-a-Can was hired by the United Nations to send an OBGYN hospital to the area. The United Nations Population Fund says hundreds of women were giving birth and 15 percent of them faced life-threatening complications. Because there’s no delaying giving birth, they needed a hospital-grade building as soon as possible.

They created the hospital from several shipping containers and used a SteelMaster container cover in the design. Not only is it easy for SteelMaster to ship steel relief structures to places around the globe, but our buildings can also be taken down and easily relocated to another area. This makes Quonsets like Clinic-in-a-Can a reusable, portable hospital.

Short-term Answer, Long-term Building – RV Shed/Disaster Shelter

• Durability & Versatility- Our buildings are designed to withstand the harshest conditions, enabling them to endure strong winds, fire, and the impact of flying debris during storms.

Once these buildings are erected, it’s tough to knock them down. This makes our disaster relief structures great for temporary purposes such as portable disaster relief shelters, but are also ideal for permanent ones as well.

Originally purchased to shelter his 32-foot motorhome, Aubrey Brown soon found that his 40 x 50 building could serve a dual purpose by providing shelter for him and his family during hurricane season in Alabama. With his RV parked inside, waiting out storms became less of a hassle.

Brown and his family survived three different hurricanes (two category five and one category four) in their garage as they witnessed shingles flying off the roof of their workshop and saw trees sliced in half and blown to the ground.

FEMA Approved, Ready To Build

Properly designed and built, Quonset huts are approved to be built in disaster areas. SteelMaster has worked with several organizations to help in recovery efforts including AECOM, USAID, the United Nations as well as Non-Profit Organizations such as World Vision. In addition to food, clean water, and medical aid, adequate temporary housing is one of the essentials for recovering communities. Our steel relief structures are the perfect solution.