Homes With Safe Rooms

For many homeowners, safety and security goes beyond burglar alarms and smoke detectors. Here are three properties with designated "safe rooms," including a showcase design from a leading home-security expert:

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LOCATION/PRICE: Madison, Miss. / $805,000

THE PROPERTY: 5,300 square feet with 4 bedrooms and 3½ baths in a suburb of Jackson

SAFE ROOM: Built to thwart intruders as well as tornadoes, it's 8' x 8' with air conditioning and a telephone to call out. The walls are 7" thick and the ceiling is 10" thick.

NOTABLE: Home overlooks a man-made pond in a golf-course community. Hard pine floors in most of the house, 11-foot ceilings and a 3-car garage.

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LOCATION/PRICE: Edmond, Okla. / $918,500

THE PROPERTY: 4,547 square feet with 5 bedrooms, 4½ baths 15 minutes from Oklahoma City

SAFE ROOM: As Edmond is in Tornado Alley, the room is designed to withstand a direct hit. Off the master bedroom, it's 6' x 6'with 8" concrete walls and a reinforced steel door.

NOTABLE: New construction in a gated subdivision designed around a 16-acre spring-fed lake. A pool and hot tub in the back yard.

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LOCATION/PRICE: Los Angeles / $9.2 million

THE PROPERTY: A 10-bedroom, 10-bath compound totaling 16,000 square feet in the Hollywood Hills above Sunset Boulevard

SAFE ROOM: Multiple safe rooms, plus a "safe core" -- a 2,500 square-foot area including the master bedroom and nursery -- that is effectively impenetrable once activated.

NOTABLE: Designed by a safe-room expert, who currently lives here. A home theater and rooftop patios make for good entertaining. Also includes a rooftop heliport.

Sources: judywahba.com; paradigm-realty.com; thedesignerusa.com

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