Gainesville School storm shelter unlocks automatically during tornado warning in Gainesville

A tornado warning issued for the city of Gainesville a little after midnight Sunday marked the first time a warning had been issued since the FEMA storm shelter addition was added to the front of the Gainesville School. Superintendent Justin Gilmore said that in the event that a tornado warning is issued for the city of Gainesville, the front doors to the school automatically unlock, allowing anyone in the area to go inside the shelter to weather out the storm. “You don’t have to wait for someone to unlock it. It does it automatically. But it has to be a tornado warning issued for Gainesville. It doesn’t unlock when there’s a severe thunderstorm warning or if the tornado warning is issued for Ozark County but in a different town,” Gilmore clarified. The superintendent said because it was the first time that a tornado warning was issued since the addition was built, he went to the school to ensure that the unlocking mechanism worked as it should. “It worked perfectly,” he said. About 20 local residents utilized the facility during the early-morning tornado warning. The shelter is available for use for anyone when a tornado warning is issued in Ozark County. The nearly 8,000-square foot addition, which was completed in 2022, was paid in part by a grant issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in order to provide a safe place during a tornado. The structure can hold 930 individuals and can withstand winds of 250-miles per hour. Dora and Bakersfield Schools have also obtained FEMA grants over the last several years and have built tornado shelters in their communities. They are available for use when a tornado warning is issued for those cities.