SPRINGFIELD, Mo – Our question this week comes from a viewer who emailed where to find a public tornado shelter.
The email read,” Asking if anyone at channel 10 has considered doing a story on where to find a public tornado shelter? The information is ridiculously hard to find an area that has so many homes without basements.”
We found that there isn’t one place to go to find a compiled, comprehensive list of all the public shelters in Missouri. However, each county usually offers this information on websites through its office of emergency management.
KOLR10 was able to find that in the Springfield area, there are five FEMA approved safe shelters… They are Hillcrest High School, Westport Elementary, The O’Reilly Center at Drury, Jefferies Elementary… and Kickapoo High School.
Here’s a list of FEMA shelters in Christian County to include the cities of Nixa, Ozark, Clever, and Chadwick
Most of these are at a school with the exception of the Ozark Community Center.
Keep in mind — you’ll want to check with a school directly to learn about its shelter policies in terms of what time of the day a storm might strike.
To learn where other shelters are located near your home — it’s best to call the office of emergency management in the county where you live.
And if you have a question or comment or complaint for our insider segment… We have a new email address for you to use… it’s insider@kolr10.com.
