Ozark Community Center Tornado Safe Room
Channel: Buddy Huggins
Date: 2015-07-19

The Ozark Parks & Recreation Center presented the City of Ozark with a great opportunity to provide a much-needed  tornado safe room  for the  community.  The Ozarks Community Center’s tornado Safe room Tornado Safe Room has approximately 4,000 square feet of open floor space below grade.  The shelter also houses interior and exterior accessible restrooms, a kitchen and ample supply storage space.  The open floor space of the shelter also promotes multiple functions such as protecting tornado victims, providing a temporary hospital unit, or simply housing the summer kids camp on a rainy day.

The centralized location within the town of Ozark allows a greater number of citizens access to the FEMA361 Safe Room more quickly in the event of an emergency. The location of the Recreation Center directly adjacent to the facility allows access to the safe room  from an exterior ground entrance, as well as a separate interior entrance from within the Recreation Center itself.

This will allow the community multiple points of access during a potential disaster, thus providing a more functional, responsive facility.  The roof of the storm shelter doubles as an exterior green roof veranda for the community and members  of  the  Recreation  Center.  Two  exterior  accessible  rest rooms  and  proximity  to  the river front have made this FEMA 361 Safe Room function as a trail head as well.  This shelter, both in its location and flexibility, functions in the community as a landmark for the City of Ozark. Support Me Here At This Link
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