Two tornado shelters at the Palmer Home for Children are unlike anything else in Lowndes County.
The shelters, installed at two locations on campus, were partially funded by a grant from the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA). Tom Green, facilities and operations manager at Palmer Home, said Lowndes County Emergency Management Director Cindy Lawrence informed the home about the grant and assisted with the application process.
“We’ve never, in our 122 years, had any protection from storms or hurricanes and tornadoes for our staff and our children,” Green said. “We’ve had a building like this on our wish list for many years, as you can well imagine.”
Green said each shelter can house 50 people, which is enough for the Palmer Home’s 43 students and roughly 25 staff members, plus any guests or work teams that might be on the campus.
The reinforced steel structures, located in the gym and Hazzard Hall, are 22 feet long, 7 feet wide, and 7 feet tall. They’re bolted to the floor, and Green said they are rated for up to EF-5 tornadoes, the most powerful tornadoes that can bring winds in excess of 200 miles per hour.
The shelters include battery-powered LED lights, alternating high and low ventilation holes to prevent air flow into the shelter from being blocked off and two reinforced doors that open to the inside. Palmer Home has also stocked the shelters with supplies like gloves, masks and other equipment.
Green said the Tornado Place, an Oklahoma company, provided the shelters.
Lawrence said Palmer Home’s shelters are the only ones of their type in the county, partially because Palmer Home was the only agency to apply for the community shelter grant. She said the shelters should provide critical protection for Palmer Home.
“Shelters are very important, especially there,” Lawrence said. “They have school on campus, and when storms are in the vicinity, they can immediately go to their safe places.”
Funding
Lawrence said she informed the home about the available grant money after the April 2014 tornado outbreak, which saw tornadoes ravage the state, including a devastating strike on Louisville that killed 10 people. Two EF-1 and two EF-2 tornadoes struck Lowndes County, though no fatalities were reported.
Lawrence said storm mitigation money was available for community shelter grants once a federal disaster area was declared after the storms, and she reached out to several groups, including Palmer Home.
Green said it took more than two years from the grant application to the shelters’ final installation. He said they were installed in February.
Lowndes County supervisors on Tuesday authorized MEMA to pay the grant directly to Palmer Home, rather than send the money to the county to give to the home. County Administrator Ralph Billingsley said the grant was worth $42,744.
Lowndes County Board of Supervisors President Harry Sanders said the county authorized MEMA to pay Palmer Home directly because the county cannot legally give money to a private entity without legislative authorization. He said the shelters are good investments for Palmer Home.
“A tornado came through there four or five years ago and just missed them by 300 or 400 yards,” Sanders said. “If that had happened today and not missed, it would have been a disaster.
“I think this is a great thing to do, and we’re very fortunate we were able to go through MEMA and get this grant,” he added.
Green said the two shelters cost about $59,000 total, with the grant paying for 75 percent of the cost and Palmer Home contributing 25 percent.
“The grant through MEMA let us afford to do this,” he said. “If there hadn’t been a grant, we couldn’t have done it.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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