12/29/2023 0 Comments Galena superintendent joplin globeThe district has seen a "good response" from the public during inclement weather, with safe rooms in the more heavily populated neighborhoods drawing 100 to 150 people at times, said Jim Hounschell, director of safety and security. The safe rooms are used as gymnasiums during the school day and are monitored by teams of volunteers during non-school hours. Nowhere has safe room construction been more evident than in Joplin, where 10 community shelters have opened over the course of the past year and another four shelters are set to open later this year. The availability of Federal Emergency Management Agency funds for tornado-mitigation projects after the 2011 storm, which was rated an EF-5 tornado and was one of the deadliest in decades, spurred many local school districts into action. The Joplin metropolitan area of Jasper and Newton counties has been hit by more than 80 tornadoes since 1950. Of those, an average of two to three per state each year are strong to violent tornadoes, rating at least a 3 on the Enhanced Fujita scale. Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma see an average combined 203 tornadoes each year, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Unlike Joplin's tornado, which hit on a Sunday night, Moore's 2013 tornado struck an elementary school when classes were in session, causing the deaths of seven students.įollowing the devastation of the Joplin tornado, district officials say they want to be prepared for the next major tornado that might hit this area.Īnd based on historical data, another big storm is likely to hit this region of the United States at some point. “The Joplin tornado woke a lot of people up,” Todd Berry, Riverton superintendent, recently told The Globe, adding the Moore, Oklahoma, tornado also got people’s attention. The Riverton, Kansas, School District recently decided to put a bond issue before voters in April that could lead to the construction of storm shelters as the district expands its building complex. Districts including Seneca and Carl Junction are working to get their safe room projects started. In many other districts, such as Neosho, Diamond, Carthage and Avilla, construction crews are working feverishly to get safe rooms built. School districts including Joplin, Webb City and Jasper in Missouri and Galena and Baxter Springs in Kansas each have built at least one community safe room since the 2011 tornado. More than $100 million will have been poured into these projects, with a portion of those costs being paid with federal funds. When local school districts' current and proposed construction projects are completed, more than 40,000 students, staff and community members across Southwest Missouri and Southeast Kansas will have access to a safe place to go during severe weather, according to a Globe analysis based on projected maximum occupancy rates of the shelters. Even districts that were already planning to build safe rooms at the time the tornado hit said the storm served as a catalyst for putting their plans into motion to try to prevent another devastating catastrophe. Officials say it's largely a result of the destruction of the May 2011 tornado, which killed 161 people in Joplin and Duquesne and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses, dozens of churches and nearly a dozen school buildings, including Joplin High School. Diamond is not alone many local school districts have spent the past three and a half years working to add safe rooms to their schools.
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