Pettis shelter plan draws national attention

Pettis County officials said they plan to educate residents about when it would be dangerous to travel to proposed storm shelters once the buildings are completed.

Pettis County received national attention this week for apparently being the first in the country to receive Federal Emergency Management Agency funding to build tornado shelters. But in a USA Today report, Oklahoma County, Okla., Emergency Management Director David Barnes criticized the proposed shelters for encouraging people to travel during dangerous weather.

Pettis County Emergency Management Agency Director Dave Clippert said his agency will organize a community education program to discuss when travel is advisable.

“Part of what we’ll do when we open the shelters is let people know when we suggest that they go to these things,” Clippert said.

The proposed education programs will advise residents about the basic operation, such as where they can park and enter, along with letting them know when they should or should not consider driving in a storm.

Pettis County Presiding Commissioner Rusty Kahrs said that letting people know when to travel will be an important step once the shelters open.

“It was not our intent to have anyone traveling during a tornado warning,” Kahrs said. “Once a warning is issued, it’s too late.”

Kahrs said the shelters will be unlocked after a tornado watch is issued. He encourages people to track storms on the news, radio and television to decide when to travel to the shelters.

Residents who do not have a basement should resort to their back-up plan when a warning is issued, Kahrs said. He discouraged people from driving to a shelter in a severe storm, but he contended that more injuries and deaths occur in a tornado due to the lack of suitable shelter than from people driving during storms.

“In some cases, such as residents who live in manufactured housing, it still may be far safer to go to the shelter than to stay in their home,” Kahrs said. “The key for those who reside in other types of homes will be the warning time and personal judgment, but at least they will have an option.”

State and federal grants will pay about 75 percent of the estimated $2.9 million cost of the eight shelters throughout the county.

Kahrs said that constructing the first shelters using FEMA funding will be a “tremendous responsibility,” but it also represents an opportunity for the county to provide an example to others across the country.