Area has few tornado safe rooms; schools look to secure funds for new gyms that double as shelters

Two hundred tornado community safe rooms have been built in Missouri since 2004, but few are located in the immediate area, State Emergency Management Agency records show.

Eight more are in the design phase, and seven are under construction, according to the SEMA website.

Many of the largely federally funded safe rooms -- designed to withstand an EF5 tornado packing wind speeds of up to 250 mph -- are located in schools.

Only four safe rooms have been constructed in the immediate area surrounding Cape Girardeau.

There are none in the city of Cape Girardeau, according to SEMA.

The SEMO Rainmakers basketball team practices in the gym, which also serves as a tornado safe room, Tuesday in the Jackson Civic Center.Laura Simon

Cape Girardeau School District officials considered constructing a safe room as part of the 2010 bond issue that included construction of the Richard D. Kinder Performance Hall at the high school.

But Neil Glass, assistant superintendent of the Cape Girardeau School District, said even if the district had been able to secure federal funding, the added cost of constructing the theater as a safe room would have been prohibitive.

"At that time, there was not a whole lot of (federal) funding," he recalled.

In addition, the funding application process is lengthy and can delay the start of school building projects, he said.

"It is very much a timing issue," Glass said.

Cape Girardeau city officials have discussed the possibility of constructing a new city hall that could incorporate a safe room, but no decision has been made about such a project or even whether to stay in the existing building.

Seeking funding

The Perry County School District in Perryville, Missouri, wants to construct two safe rooms on its campus as part of major building improvements in the coming years.

The Feb. 28 tornado in Perryville damaged 180 structures and resulted in one death.

Andy Comstock, superintendent of the Perry County schools, said school officials have promised to build the safe rooms even though it failed to receive federal funding for one safe room and still is seeking funding for the other.

The district has a tax levy issue on the April ballot, which would fund improvements including a kindergarten through second-grade center.

The district's application for federal funding for a safe room in the center was turned down. The district is reapplying for funding for a safe room as part of middle-school improvement plans, Comstock said.

Perry County school officials already had plans to construct the two safe rooms before the recent tornado struck, Comstock said. The recent disaster could improve the district's chances of securing future safe-room funding, he said.

"It should help us move up that list and make it a priority," he said.

Comstock said, "The deal for us is that all of our kids are one campus."

He said it is important to have safe rooms because currently, "We feel like we are exposed in case of a storm."

Advance and Scott City public schools have constructed safe rooms. Three Rivers College in Sikeston has a safe room.

The $5.6 million Jackson Civic Center, which opened last year, includes a safe room with 60 tons of structural steel and seismic bracing.

In addition to being a storm shelter, the room houses a basketball court, two cross-court basketball courts, volleyball courts and a walking track.

Scott City School District's safe room doubles as a visual and performing arts center. It opened in 2015.

The Jackson School District is waiting on federal money to build an addition to West Lane Elementary School that would include a tornado safe room that would double as a gymnasium.

Jackson superintendent John Link said he expects federal funding to be awarded soon.

"We keep getting information it is a matter of when, not if," Link said.

The district hopes to break ground on the project this summer or fall, Link said.

Funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency would pay 75 percent of the shelter's cost, or $2.9 million, with the local district chipping in the rest, according to school officials.

Without federal funding, it would be too expensive to build a safe room, Link said.

The safe room could shelter up to 2,521 students, staff and residents.

Link said the safe room would be designed to house all of the students, faculty and staff of West Lane Elementary School and the nearby junior high school.

"We hope we never have to use it," Link said.

Little use

Safe rooms have seen little use in this area during storms.

Shane Anderson, Jackson parks and recreation director, said, "We have had a few folks come in."

During the Feb. 28 storm, which unleashed the deadly tornado in Perryville, two people sought shelter at the Jackson Civic Center.

During a storm earlier this month, no one showed up at the safe room, he said.

"This safe room is intended to provide protection during a short-term extreme wind event such as a tornado," Anderson said.

"This is not a recovery shelter or a shelter that can be used as a warming or cooling center," he said.

In accordance with FEMA regulations, no pets are allowed in safe rooms, Anderson said.

Link, the Jackson superintendent, said people often are reluctant to come to a safe room because they don't want to leave their pets.

The safe room on the Advance school campus opened last September as part of a more than $2 million project that also included additional classrooms, school superintendent Shannon Garner said.

The safe room, which doubles as a gymnasium for the elementary-school students, can hold 1,200 people, he said.

"We have used it (the safe room) in the last couple of storms," he said.

During the Feb. 28 storm, two people sought refuge in the safe room, Garner said.

A few individuals also came to the safe room during a storm earlier this month, he added.

'Peace of mind'

Garner said he is glad the campus has a safe room to protect faculty, staff and students as well as the general public. He said it provides him with "peace of mind."

"I know the kids will be safe," he added.

But Garner said the safe room also provided a way for the small school district to construct a gym for its elementary students.

Without FEMA funding, he said, "we could have never built a gym."

Missouri receives federal mitigation funding equal to 20 percent of federal disaster funding available to the state, said Mike O'Connell, communications director for the Missouri Department of Public Safety, under which SEMA operates.

"We have one year from the date of (disaster) declaration to have projects selected," he said.

Priority is given to projects in areas that have suffered a flood, tornado or other natural disaster.

"It hinges on how many disasters you have," O'Connell said, adding federal hazard-mitigation funding flowed to Missouri after the deadly Joplin tornado in 2011.

O'Connell said safe rooms have to be constructed to strict standards to qualify for federal funds. A safe room must be built with reinforced concrete and have a special roof and steel doors to withstand powerful tornadoes, he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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