That led Alabama to require schools to include safe rooms or to close during tornado watches. I truly believe in shelters in schools for that reason.”īennett said that he is now receiving the same kind of back-channel signals that he got after the 2007 tornado in Enterprise, Ala., where a tornado killed seven at the local high school. “The Enterprise tornado and now this tornado show us that’s not always the case. The other is that they’ll come home safe. “When we send our kids to school there are two things we take for granted,” said Schultz. In 1999, tornadoes hit schools in Wichita, and though no one was killed, “that opened eyes.” Schultz says that his state, like Oklahoma, depends on FEMA funding for tornado shelters, but has focused on adding safe rooms to schools. Next door in Kansas, however, Schultz says an equally beet-red state seems to have decided to steer its disaster money to creating more public shelters. Many were in the same area as yesterday’s tornado.” But according to the city’s website, changes in federal regulations created a “moving target” and delayed the program.įEMA’s Watson said that in the past 20 years, “FEMA has invested more than $57 million in 11,768 private and public safe rooms in Oklahoma, more structures than any other state. Moore wanted $2 million in rebates for 800 homeowners to build safe rooms, and had submitted an emergency plan to the state and FEMA as part of the application process. Localities can also apply for another pool of federal money, as the City of Moore was attempting to do. “Oklahoma’s SoonerSafe Safe Room Rebate Program is a model for supporting the construction of safe rooms through the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program Grants,” said FEMA spokesman Dan Watson. In 2012, 16,000 homeowners applied, and 500 “won” the reimbursements via random drawing. But again, the money is federal, pulled from the state’s unused FEMA funds, and winners are chosen via lottery. SoonerSafe pays homeowners 75 percent of the cost of building a safe room, up to $2,000. In 2012, the state launched a new program to make construction of the rooms less costly. The state has emphasized using federal funds to underwrite the optional construction of specially reinforced, above-ground “safe rooms” inside private homes rather than community tornado shelters. Though the mayor of Moore said Wednesday he now wants the city to require shelters in private homes, Oklahoma, like other states prone to tornadoes, prefers to encourage the construction of shelters. And only one state – Alabama – requires them in schools, he said. “I am unaware of any jurisdiction that requires safe rooms in private homes,” said Corey Schultz, a Kansas architect who specializes in building safe rooms for schools. That makes Oklahoma similar to other states in Tornado Alley. They don’t like it when the government says they have to do something.” “People don’t like anything that is mandated. Richard Morrissette, D-Oklahoma City, who has introduced several unsuccessful bills in the state Legislature to require so-called “safe rooms,” shelters or anti-tornado construction in homes and trailer parks. The region’s politics and economy also were factors. But it wasn’t just the ground under residents’ feet that was to blame.
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