PITTSBURG, Kan. — When the tornado sirens sounded in Pittsburg on May 22, 2011, Miranda Johnson, a registered nurse at Via Christi Hospital, helped move patients from their rooms into the hallways and interior space of the medical-surgical floor.

It was part of the hospital’s standard emergency response during a Code Gray, a uniform, worldwide alert for severe weather.

Johnson recalls patients asking: “What about the windows?”

The facade of the five-story patient tower, built in the shape of a cross from a bird’s-eye view, includes windows in every patient room and at the end of every hallway.

“We pulled the mini-blinds, and I told them we’d keep them as far away as possible,” Johnson said.

Pittsburg was spared that day, but miles away an EF-5 tornado with wind speeds of 200 mph hit St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Mo.

On Thursday, Johnson watched crews from HanitaTek Window Films, based in Dallas, Texas, install security window film on the hospital’s fourth floor. The product is designed to contain glass that has been broken by high winds, a tornado or flying debris, and to prevent shards from injuring people or property.

“It’s a relief,” Johnson said. “Now we’ll be able to tell them, ‘You’ll be safe.’ And so will we.”

But would this type of window film have helped in Joplin?

The EF-5 twister on May 22 damaged or destroyed 7,500 homes in Joplin and was so powerful that it reportedly shifted St. John’s Regional Medical Center four inches off its foundation.

Film stays intact

Darrell Smith, executive director of the International Window Film Association, said the windows might not survive the impact of the debris, but the film itself has 25,000 pounds per square inch of bursting strength.

“Wind speed itself doesn’t affect the film; wind speed affects at what point the glass would break,” Smith said. “Film on glass can stay in place up to 200 miles per hour, no problem.”

High risk for injury comes when shards of glass fly across a room, and they make property that much more challenging to clean up — particularly if a wall of rain accompanies a tornado, Smith said.

“In an EF-5, you’re looking at a building coming down. It doesn’t matter what’s on the windows,” Smith said. “Most of the damage, though, is after the glass breaks. Whenever anything impacts the window, like flying debris, the window film takes over. It is engineered to absorb the shock of the glass breaking. Rather than letting the fragments explode into the interior, it holds them in place.”

The International Window Film Association is made up of window film dealers, distributors and manufacturers. Part of the organization’s purpose is to provide unbiased research, influence policy and promote awareness of window film.

Smith said HanitaTek, the company employed by Via Christi, is one of the association’s member manufacturers, “and with part of their company in Israel, they are experts with anti-terrorism experience. They are called in all over Europe and the Middle East.”

terrorists, hurricanes

Within 90 days of the Joplin tornado, Via Christi administrators decided to hire HanitaTek to install the window film in hallways and other common areas where patients would be moved during severe weather.

The price tag for the film for 88 windows on the second, third, fourth and fifth floors came to $54,000, according to hospital spokesman Michael Hayslip.

Security window film is manufactured in thickness ranging from 4 millimeters to 15 millimeters. Via Christi’s window film is 12 millimeters thick. The crew members installed each piece from the inside by first adhering it to a window. They then clamped frames on the perimeter of the window over the film, with screws holding the frames in place every six inches.

Smith said that technique is preferred because in the event glass breaks, the film contains the glass fragments, and the attached frames hold the film in place.

Glenn Yocca, HanitaTek project manager, said he has 20 years of experience installing the product on windows in buildings considered to be terrorist targets or close to terrorist targets, in areas prone to hurricanes, in oil refineries, in banks, in state and federal buildings to comply with government mandates, and in county courthouses.

“In Oklahoma City, as an example, there was a catastrophic failure of the building, but there were approximately 18 square blocks of glass breakage as well,” he said in reference to the bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995.

According to a report by the Oklahoma City Police Department, the blast shattered glass in 258 nearby buildings.

Not bulletproof

In residential installations, adding security window film has been proved to make the glass of the window stronger than the frame of the window, said Steve Jager, owner of Glass Tint USA in Springfield, Mo.

“It’s very effective if it’s done correctly and it’s done for the right reason,” Jager said. “There’s a lot of people who think it’s bulletproof, and it’s not. The glass will break. But this keeps everything together and minimizes the amount of glass damage that otherwise would take place during a hurricane or tornado.”

Because residential glass is much thinner than the tempered glass of a commercial building or hospital, a thinner window film is sufficient, Smith said, and less costly.

He said the price for residential installation would range from $5 to $10 per square foot, or about $75 to $150 for a 3- by 5-foot window.





Other uses



WINDOW FILMS also are installed for numerous other reasons, including reducing sun glare, blocking ultraviolet rays and improving energy efficiency, according to the International Window Film Association.