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2011 was  an unusually 
active and deadly year for tornadoes   

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across the u_s_

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with a total one thousand six hundred
and ninety - one tornadoes reported across the

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country

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Several tornado records were broken in
two thousand eleven including 

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greatest number of tornadoes in a single month

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758 in April

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and the greatest number of tornadoes in 
one day two hundred on april twenty

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seventh

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when disaster strikes across a large area

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several FEMA Regions come together to help the people who are affected by the disaster.

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States and EMA partnered on multiple programs for residential Safe Rooms Community Safe Rooms and ICC 500 Shelters and schools. Most schools have a tornado plan, but not a Safe Room. 

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We already provided the disaster designations
that are required 

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to make sure that the maximum Federal 
help

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comes here

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as quickly as possible

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FEMA and particularly some of the
regions of FEMA

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should be commended for their efforts

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Providing quality through the 

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guidlines that are published 

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tremendous

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uh... number of people in

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of competent people and team of uh... or
paying attention to quality control

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aspects of Safe Rooms

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some of the regions are doing an
outstanding job

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not only of

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say implementing

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programs to build safe rooms but also  

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to provide the quality. 

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Region four

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tremendous challenge right now in Alabama 

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 with a number of tornadoes that have occured

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I'm standing here in Forest Lake which is now the hardest hit areas of Tuscaloosa 

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… this is a historic neighborhood
that so many deaths as a result of the EF-4

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tornado that touched down april twenty
seventh

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behind me is a safe one

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basically ah... a haven of hope for those
of us who live here

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as you can see the tornado basically
cleared

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uh... thishouse right off its
foundation

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in this room of those who lived here were safe...
Establishing the criteria for

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eligibility in

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setting up a consistent

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process throughout the state

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tuscaloosa adopts building codes that require more Safe Room structures

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especially in our high density areas

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we are looking for ways we can make
safe rooms affordable so that it's not

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only for those of means but for
everyone, the first time home buyer

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or somebody leasing

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they have an opportunity for a safe room.
It started

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getting stormy about two o'clock in the morning
we came and we were under a tornado watch porn i

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we maned the office all day

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uh... we run under several warnings

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ever time we were under warning we woud do

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our public alert notification and sound sirens.
Around four o'clock when a tornado came through

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 we actually sounded sirens about fifteen minutes before the tornado hit. 

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and then as the day 

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wore on

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and then there's the dire warning sirens
kept going off and so forth it

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by one thirty the shelter was full

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with as many people it
could hold

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it was rated an EF-5

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it came into the countyi on the..
southwestern corner of the county it

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stayed on the ground our way through the
county 

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it makes it a lot easier because we
do have a place that we can tell 

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people to go where they' can be safe
this shelter also before we got this

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one... we didn't have any place
except maybe a basement in churches

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we would  go to the Baptist  church or we go a
neighborhood uh...

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storm cellar

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in our neighborhood

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and since they built this  i
have been here six times since they built this

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the churches all had their basements open

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we had two churches that was destroyed by the

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tornado but it was roughly three hundred

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houses that was completely destroyed
and probably two hundred more than had

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major damage. the tornado was an EF-5.
 we have five shelters they won't 

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be this large would have to five that
would go out in the county has

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already approved by FEMA.

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the bid has been let them we are just waiting for them to be built
quite known him to bill

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we have eight more

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that has gone to the State 

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you know, it's better to be safe then sorry
i'm glad we  had no one injured

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but looking back

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you know our safety plan even though it
was approved and we knew what we're  supposed to

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do it was not gonna

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had we been in school we you know it is
not going to keep kids from getting hurt or

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be seriously hurt the well watched our
hospital this area and one if you can

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imagine having kids in this class room

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uh... you know you you need to plan for
that so that we don't

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we don't have that tragedy and that's certainly
opened our eyes in hackleburg

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remain kennedy where word atlas start
one part of what we might have

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a safe place for folks to go. 
In each of the region's that

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FEMA has been active that's uh...

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region four in the atlanta region
right now there's a lot of activity in

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alabama for example

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region six which includes Texas, Oklahoma,
and so on

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perhaps others

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and region seven in kansas city

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all have had

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extensive programs

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for

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uh... augmenting the

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cost of building

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safe rooms in the residential or
construction

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continued midwesterner kansas city area

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they have been most progressive inactive
in building community shelters

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and have sort of led the way and

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in the processes for design as well as
in

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verifying compliance with the standards

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for communities safe rooms

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 the kansas city region has been

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to say proactive and

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forwarded

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first of all

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uh... providing guidance and climbing
for

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building communities safe rooms

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and a vast number of safe rooms have
been built in schools in the midwest

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Texas  

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the um...

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stay has been very active with the
shelter incentive grant program

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not only

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and uh... providing partial funding for

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safe rooms either community or or residential
these state of texas for example is

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implementing a

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large

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safe room program along the texas coast
been determined there that not only

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are there vulnerable  populations

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the traditional

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 evacuation

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processes do not work well because the

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 transportation facilities
particularly down and

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deep south texas are not adequate to get
the people out of there

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so it is incumbent on us to 

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provide

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places of safety within the neighborhood
rather than trying to evacuate people

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so that there there is another example
of of large-scale programs for building

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community shelters

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and then i could name in a number of

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residential

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safe room

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incentive grant programs to encourage
homeowners

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to build safe rooms

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the 

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states local communities and FEMA are
all

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engaged in

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the uh...

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funding the design and construction of
safe rooms

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fema provides

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some incentive grant funding for
mitigation

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resulting from a declared disaster

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when there's a declared disaster a
percentage of the funds that are spent

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for relief and recovery

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go into a mitigation fund

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and that fund is typically then turned
over to a state

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emergency management office

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to administer to

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to say perform disaster mitigation

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their responsibility is basically to
provide the expertise

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through this

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guidelines

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and to

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funding

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a lot of the responsibility rests with the
state and local local jurisdiction for

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ensuring compliance with the guidelines
and standards that we have.