Schools, city to receive funding for tornado shelters

July 15, 2011|Edited news release

Kansas City, Mo. – Students and faculty in four schools and one university, as well as residents of one southwest Missouri community will soon have a safe place to shelter from dangerous Missouri weather. In the last three months, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), as part of its Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP), approved more than $3.9 million in funding for five safe rooms built to stringent standards and designed to withstand winds of 250 miles per hour.

The schools and community that will receive funds for tornado safe rooms are:

Clever School District 5
East Newton VI School District
Jasper R-5 School District
Nixa R-II School District
City of Fair Grove
Drury University

“Recent events across the country have shown tornadoes can and do hit schools. While we can’t prevent or predict tornadoes with absolute certainty, we can build strong, dependable shelters to ensure students, faculty, and community-members have a safe place to go when storms threaten,” said Beth Freeman, FEMA Region VII Regional Administrator. “We’re pleased to see the number of safe rooms in Missouri continue to grow.”

Since the late 1990s, FEMA has distributed millions of dollars for the construction of safe rooms in schools and communities across the region. The safe rooms meet FEMA recommendations and are built to withstand winds of 250 miles per hour. They generally shelter an entire building’s population and oftentimes are multi-use rooms serving as gymnasiums, cafeterias, and libraries on a day-to-day basis.

Additional information on safe room design, standards, and construction guidance can be found at http://www.fema.gov/plan/prevent/saferoom/

Funding for the safe rooms comes in large part from FEMA grants awarded through a cost-share arrangement in which the federal government provides funds for up to 75 percent of eligible project costs and the state and/or local government pay the remaining 25 percent.

Tornado safe rooms are just one example of several project-types funded through HMGP. Administered in strong partnership with the state, these grants enable states to conduct and implement long-term hazard mitigation measures. The purpose of the program is to lessen the impact disasters have on a community and help prevent the loss of life and reduce the risk to property.

The HMGP can be used to fund projects that protect public or private property, provided the project fits within the state and local government’s overall mitigation strategy, and complies with HMGP guidelines.

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