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St. Louis region to get new tornado "safe rooms" this year

<p>Construction</p>

They promise a better defense against deadly tornados, and this year the St. Louis region is getting three of them.

Construction is underway on several “tornado safe room” projects in eastern Missouri.

Safe rooms are part of FEMA’s hazard mitigation program, where the federal government provides funding to provide protection from severe storms for local communities. The state of Missouri administers the grant to organizations -- like community organizations and school districts -- that apply and meet the specific requirements.

LINK: http://sema.dps.mo.gov/programs/mitigation_management.php

According to a state list, more than 100 safe rooms have already been built in Missouri.

At Troy Buchanan High School, construction is underway on a new auditorium.

“It’s going to be a classroom space -- so a learning opportunity for our students,” explained principal Dr. Jerry Raines. The building will offer instructional space and serve as a performing arts center. It will also serve another purpose for Lincoln County.

“In the event of inclement weather or where we’d have a tornado, we could evacuate all of our students -- which is approximately 1500 -- into that facility in less than five minutes,” Raines said. “The construction of the walls, the thickness of the walls, will withstand a tornado of the caliber that went through Joplin, Missouri.”

If a severe weather event occurs after school hours, Raines explained, the community could also make use of the protective space.

This grant first became available for Missourians more than a decade ago. However, events like the deadly EF5 tornado that ripped through Joplin in 2011, and a tornado that struck St. Louis that same spring prompted greater interest in the grant.

“That really hit off a lot of grant funding and we saw almost a hundred projects across the state that related to that disaster funding,” said Brad Erwin, of Paragon Architecture based in Southwest Missouri.

Erwin’s firm has been one of the state’s leading experts on applying for the grant and building these types of facilities. He works with school districts to explain the process.

Erwin said tornado safe rooms are built with to withstand 250 mph winds, and to protect against projectiles flying through the air. They include special ventilation and power sources to ride out an hours-long weather event.

“Some of these smaller rural school districts, especially, you have an entire generation of that town in one location,” Erwin said. “So it’s really cool when we work with areas like that. They can provide, with one building, the safety and security of an entire generation of their town all in one spot.”

The new auditorium at Troy-Buchanan high school should be finished by late 2016.

The Orchard Farm school district, in St. Charles County, is building an early childhood center with a tornado safe room set to open in August.

In St. Francois County, Farmington R-7 school district also built a tornado safe room as an addition to their kindergarten building. School officials said construction is finished and they moved into that facility in January.

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