![]() ![]() ![]() An F5 tornado struck the area on May 20th, causing widespread destruction. Tornado damaged classroom in the Tower Elementary school in Moore, Oklahoma. The Joplin tornado hit on a Sunday night but the one in Moore struck an elementary school during the school day, killing seven students. “The Joplin tornado woke a lot of people up,” said Riverton superintendent Todd Berry, who added that a 2013 tornado in Moore, Oklahoma, also got people’s attention. Many of the districts received Federal Emergency Management Agency funds for the projects. And the Riverton, Kansas, district recently decided to put a bond issue on April’s ballot that would include funds for storm shelters. ![]() Crews are working in many other districts to complete or start construction on safe rooms. Kayla Smith said their safe room is big enough that they’ve been able to squeeze in the neighbors, their kids, and both families’ pets.The Dills have yet to take shelter in their safe room, and they’re OK with that.“My husband says it’s the one wedding gift we really hope we never have to use,” Amanda Dills said.School districts – including Joplin, Webb City and Jasper in Missouri, and Galena and Baxter Springs in Kansas – have built at least one community safe room since the tornado. It holds up to eight, though she described its shape “like a phone booth on its side.”Joplin has been spared another tornado, but there have been plenty of severe storms. “We ended up pretty much getting the whole thing paid for.”Their safe room cost more than $3,000. “That was the one thing my family was a bit concerned about,” Amanda Dills, 35, said. Blake Dills already had a house in Oklahoma City, but it didn’t have a basement. They already have the things you would traditionally register for.”Even with advancements in storm forecasting that often provide plenty of warning for impending tornadoes, some people simply have no place to go.Before they wed in October 2013, Blake and Amanda Dills put a request for safe room donations on their Knot bridal registry. “We’re seeing that couples are getting married a little later in life and more times than not they’re living together. “It doesn’t surprise me that this is something couples would be doing,” Cooper said of safe rooms. WATCH: Unique wedding gift ideasĤ:52 Unique wedding gift ideas for all budgets But those lists increasingly have their quirks, said Kristen Maxwell Cooper, executive editor of The Knot, a leading wedding website. “It was really just our main necessity, something to keep us safe,” Kayla Smith, 29, said.Sometimes, relatives of the newlyweds buy the rooms to make sure the young couple is safe out on their own, according to John Hunter, co-owner of Atlas Safe Rooms in Joplin.“I know of a guy who asked a father to marry the daughter, and the father said, ‘Not unless you have a safe room,'” Hunter said.Kitchen gadgets, bedding supplies and home decorations are still the most popular items on bridal registries. READ MORE: ‘I can’t even tell you how many we’ve seen’: Alberta storm chaser following tornadoes in KansasAs their wedding approached in 2013, they asked for safe room donations as wedding gifts, eventually building a $5,200 safe room in their garage. Ricky took shelter in his apartment stairwell. Kayla was with her parents in a car that was spun off the road into a yard. A few are buried in the yard like shelters of years past.The Smiths weren’t yet married when the tornado came through Joplin. Safe rooms typically cost $3,000 to $7,000, depending on the size. Most are small and built in a garage or closet. They are windowless with no light fixtures or electricity. Safe room sales skyrocketed, aided in part by the availability of Federal Emergency Management Agency grant and rebate programs that help pay for them in some states.The pre-fabricated rooms feature thick steel walls and doors that can withstand winds up to 250 mph. The devastation raised awareness about the need for safety in homes that don’t have basements. 2:22 Oklahoma hit hard as tornadoes touch down in several states ![]()
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