Guess there isn't a thread for this topic. Found this article and this isn't a bad idea. They really should do the GYM and make all bathrooms with reenforced concrete on level with what they do with Oz Shelters. They still should build large underground storm shelters in new school construction.
''Dozens of first-graders giggled as they sprinted from one end of the heavily reinforced structure to the other end, unaware their new gymnasium was built to withstand 250 mph winds.
Kim Lanier, the longtime superintendent of Oakdale School in northeast Oklahoma City, hopes he never has to test what doubles as a 6,500-square-foot safe room.
“You feel safer because you have a more secure place to go,” Lanier said Thursday. “But it doesn't discount the procedures you need to have to get there.”
Fortified with concrete and rebar and big enough to hold 1,300 people, safe rooms like the one at Oakdale may be the new trend in tornado protection for schools across the state
In the wake of the devastating May 20 tornado that demolished two schools and killed seven third-graders at Plaza Towers Elementary, school officials throughout Oklahoma are considering whether to incorporate safe rooms into new gym and classroom construction. Nearly two dozen such projects are being considered in Oklahoma City alone.
Safe rooms are considered to be more cost-effective than underground shelters, which require elevators and access for the disabled, and are not used except in emergencies, said Jeff Wegener, co-owner of LWPB Architecture, the Oklahoma City firm that designed the Oakdale safe room.''
Read more here - http://newsok.com/oklahoma-schools-c...rticle/3880799
Also,
While that is nice, it won't fund every school and living smack dab in tornado alley, we really should have storm shelters in schools, hospitals, government buildings, high density living areas also including suburban apartment complexes, and I would even advocate that new home construction should at least be required to have a reenforced bathroom or something.The project will be paid for with “leftover” MAPS for Kids funding, district officials said.
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