Schools study safety plans for tornadoes

Safe rooms, underground or interior spaces advised

In schools that lack safe rooms, the safest place to seek shelter during a tornado is sometimes a hallway, a Fayetteville School District administrator said.

School officials and crisis teams study tornado safety and have watched video footage of the 2011 tornado destruction at Joplin schools, said Ginny Wiseman, Fayetteville’s associate superintendent for administrative services. Emergency plans are reviewed annually.

“We’re always looking for better ways,” she said. “You only have so many options.What is the safest of those options?”

Tornadoes can happen any time of year, but the peak time in Arkansas usually is from March through May, said John Robinson, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Little Rock. Severe weather also can break out in November and December.

In May 2013, 267 tornadoes formed in 25 states, according to information from the National Weather Service, including a powerful EF5 that struck Moore, Okla. The May 20 tornado in Moore killed 24 people and caused $2 billion in property damage. It struck two elementary schools while classes were still in session.

The Joplin tornado, also an EF5, killed 161 people and caused $2.2 billion in property damage. It struck 10 buildings owned by the Joplin School District, including a high school and the district’s Franklin Technology Center. That tornado occurred on a Sunday.

Until 2011, Joplin schools’ tornado-safety plans called for students to get on their hands and knees in hallways and cover their heads, said Jason Cravens, executive director of secondary education.

“We don’t do that any more,” he said.

In Arkansas, tornadoes haven’t often occurred during school hours, Robinson said. The peak time for tornadoes in Arkansas is 7 p.m. during daylight saving time.

The state Department of Emergency Management makes the same recommendations for school officials that it does for the general public, spokesman Brandon Morris said. “Go to the most-interior space in their structure. Stay away from any glass. Stay there until they have an all clear,” he said.

The department encourages people to have an emergency supply kit, make a plan and stay informed, Morris said. One resource on preparedness is ready.arkansas.gov.

Act 484, passed last year, mandates that the director of the Department of Emergency Management require all public schools to conduct tornado-safety drills at least three times a year - in September, January and February, Department of Education spokesman Kimberly Friedman said.

Video taken at Joplin High School during the tornado three years ago showed a vending machine tumbling down a hallway, Cravens said. When school officials walked through the campus after the tornado, they noticed that the high school’s exterior had the most damage, while counselors’ offices and some interior classrooms had minimal damage.

However, some other buildings were leveled, Cravens said.

The district’s first choice now for shelter during a tornado is a safe room, Cravens said. The district opened three new schools in January that were built with tornado safe rooms for students, staff members and nearby residents. By the end of this year, the district will have 14 community safe rooms, including one at every elementary school.

The second preferenceas a shelter from a tornado is a basement or underground area, Cravens said. The district is not building a shelter at one middle school because it has a basement. Another school was built into the side of a hill and has a lower level that is protected by land.

The third preference is an interior room, he said.

In Fayetteville, many schools have classrooms with windows, making them unsafe during a tornado, Wiseman said. A nearby hallway is a safer place to be during a tornado.

At Happy Hollow Elementary School, officials have determined that the restrooms in the building’s interior offer the best shelter away from windows and flying glass, Wiseman said.

In Beebe, a tornado in January 1999 damaged several buildings on a night when basketball games were scheduled, Superintendent Belinda Shook said.

School officials interrupted a girls’ basketball game and canceled a boys’ basketball game because of a severestorm that was approaching White County, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported at the time. The gymnasium was evacuated, and the visiting team left for home about 15 minutes before the tornado razed the gym. Two people were killed, and 50 homes and businesses were destroyed.

The district has since built four community safe rooms, one for every campus, she said.

Students and staff members have access to the safe rooms during the day, Shook said. Police open the safe rooms when tornado warnings are issued after school hours.

“We’re very aware of the damage tornadoes can do,” Shook said. “We pay attention to weather.”

Schools often are built with glass features to let in natural light and create a nice atmosphere for learning, said Harold Brooks, senior scientist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla. During a tornado, the best shelter is a windowless, concrete-blockstructure that’s reinforced with steel.

In the absence of concrete-block walls, small, interior rooms away from windows and as low to the ground as possible are recommended, Brooks said. Hallways that have 90-degree turns and no doors that open to the outside are also an option.

School officials have to look at a building’s structure to determine the safest place for students and staff members to take shelter during a tornado, Brooks said. Shelter plans should be updated when buildings are remodeled.

Before the tornado in Moore, Okla., a hospital there had created a tornado safety plan that designated unsafe areas as red, acceptable areas as yellow and the safest areas as green, Brooks said. Staff members were trained to get everyone to green spaces if possible. When the tornado hit, staff members knew where to direct people.

During tornado drills, school officials should monitor how quickly and easily staff members and students move to safe spots, Brooks said. Participants should also know how to react during after-school activities, when a tornado is more likely to occur.

“Hallways are neither good or bad,” Brooks said. “If all of your classrooms have lots of glass to the outside, the classrooms are terrible. There are times when the hallways are the best option. It’s really a case-by-case basis.”

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