School Tour Shows Twister-Proof Features
Reprinted with permission of The Topeka Capital-Journal
By Heather Hollingsworth
The Capital-Journal
Principal Mary Spencer was shocked when she arrived at her Wichita school the morning after a May 3, 1999, tornado swept through the area.
About 6 inches of water was standing in the hallways and in classrooms of the Greiffenstein Special Education Center. Papers, books and roofing and installation materials were strewn everywhere, she said.
But most frightening was the corridor where children used to be told to take refuge during tornado drills. The roof had caved in above it. Spencer said a little prayer and thanked God the tornado struck at about 7 p.m. -- hours after the students had left for the day.
"I don't know how we would have kept someone from getting hurt or killed," she said.
After the tornado, Wichita Unified School District 259 requested assistance constructing safe rooms, or storm shelters, from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA helped draft safe room guidelines and granted the district $2.3 million to help construct such rooms. Nearby Reno County initially estimated it would request $1.2 million for similar construction.
Greiffenstein was demolished, and the rebuilt version should be completed in January. The new school -- unlike its predecessor -- will include a reinforced safe room that stands up better to high-speed winds.
That shelter likely will bear reinforcements similar to those used at Topeka's Williams Science and Fine Arts Magnet, which members of the Legislature's Joint State Building Construction Committee toured on Friday. FEMA officials guided the tour and discussed a first-of-its-kind tornado refuge evaluation checklist that will be released sometime this month. The tour was part of a two-day workshop on "Solving the Tornado Puzzle for Schools" in Topeka.
Williams, which was constructed in 1995, was used as an example of a school that comes close to meeting the FEMA standards. The Williams shelters function as hallways, but in case of storms, 300 students can be herded into each of the two steel-reinforced masonry corridors. Metal doors then can be closed to seal off the area.
Sen. Ben Vidricksen, R-Salina, said members of the construction committee are recommending the introduction of a bill that would make new or remodeled schools comply with the FEMA requirements. The FEMA requirements are recommended as guides for the construction of shelters in any community buildings, not just schools.
Kansas schools are required only to designate a storm shelter and conduct three tornado drills annually. Schools could designate a parking lot a storm shelter and comply with the requirement, said Joy Moser, public information officer for the adjunct general's office.
Maj. Gen. Greg Gardner, adjutant general of Kansas and director of emergency management, said school officials typically select interior halls or basements as storm shelters. But, he said, the group discussed incidents of walls in interior hallways crumbling and roofs collapsing.
Gardner said people shouldn't panic, though. Tornados strike relatively few schools, and most occur between 3:30 and 9 p.m.
"Where districts are building new schools, some take the time to engineer great strength into it," Gardner said, citing Williams as an example. "I would imagine there are a lot that are without (such strength)."
The workshop was sponsored by the Kansas Division of Emergency Management, Joint Legislative Building Committee, FEMA, the National Weather Service, the Kansas State Department of Education, International Conference of Building Officials, American Institute of Architects and the Kansas fire marshal's office.
Last Modified: Friday, 11-Aug-2006 12:25:46 EDT