Schools the site of more emergency shelters

A growing number of emergency shelters in Missouri in recent years may mean more people scramble toward the nearest school the next time a tornado siren sounds.

Since 2005, 32 facilities classified as "safe rooms" by the Federal Emergency Management Agency have been built statewide in public school districts or community colleges. Nine projects are in progress, according to the most recent information available from the agency.

FEMA enters into a cost-sharing agreement with schools to build safe rooms, in most cases providing 75 percent of funding through its Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, as long as the facilities meet emergency shelter specifications set by the agency. FEMA's requirements for safe rooms vary based on areas of the country where they are built. Areas more at risk for tornadoes, for example, require steel-reinforced, foot-thick concrete walls that can withstand winds of an EF-5 tornado, or up to 250 mph.

In Bloomfield, Mo., the school district will open bids the first week of February for a $1.6 million multipurpose building with FEMA safe-room standards. It will have classrooms, a gymnasium, locker rooms, a concession area and storage areas.

"We felt like every community needed a place for the community to go, and if something happened during the school day, we are obligated for the safety of the students," said Dr. Nicholas Thiele, school superintendent.

FEMA will pick up $1.1 million of the tab for the project, which Thiele said should be completed by December. Puxico, a district next door to Bloomfield, is working on a similar FEMA safe room.

Entities covered by a local hazard mitigation plan are eligible for a safe room grant, said Mike O'Connell, spokesman for the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency, which manages the grants. Those entities are typically counties, cities, school districts, colleges and universities. A private entity could be eligible if a city or county applied on its behalf. For example, O'Connell said, a county government could apply on behalf of a private school.

Cape Girardeau's performing arts center under construction at Central High School had administrators looking at the possibility of including design specifications to make it eligible for the hazard mitigation grant funding, but plans changed when specifications weren't matching up well with FEMA requirements, said Neil Glass, administrative services director. Hallways of buildings in the district do however meet or exceed school construction standards, he said.

That is also case in the Jackson School District, superintendent Dr. Ron Anderson said.

While Missouri ranks 15th in the nation for the number of tornadoes annually, the deadliest tornado in a historic assessment in the U.S., known as the Tri-State Tornado, carved a 291-mile path through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana in 1925. The May 22 tornado in Joplin, Mo., is the deadliest single tornado since modern record-keeping began in 1950 and is ranked as the seventh-deadliest in U.S. history, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Since the safe room initiative began, FEMA has provided more than $200 million for the design and construction of more than 500 community safe rooms, according to the agency's website. The agency has also provided more than $50 million for the design and construction of nearly 20,000 residential safe rooms.

Early Monday morning, the southern end of a storm system that caused severe thunderstorms in Southeast Missouri produced at least two tornadoes hit Alabama, killing two people and damaging more than 200 homes.

In Maplesville, Ala., about 45 miles south of Birmingham, more than 50 people were in the town's dome-shaped storm shelter when the winds blew the top of a sweet gum tree, about one-foot in diameter, on to the steel building. No damage was done and no one was injured in the shelter, built about five years ago with a FEMA grant because of past tornadoes.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

eragan@semissourian.com

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