New high school in Independence to have ‘safe room’

INDEPENDENCE - The new Independence Junior/Senior High School includes space for a “safe room,” the first ever in Buchanan County.

On Friday, the district reported that FEMA will offer the Independence Community School District a $831,064 grant, including $733,292 in federal funds and $97,772 state funds, for the safe room, designed to “meet FEMA criteria and provide ‘near-absolute' protection in extreme weather events, including tornadoes.”

“When this idea came up was a couple of years ago when the tornadoes were hitting in the Alabama region,” said Independence Community School District Board President Brian Eddy. “We thought if we had the opportunity to incorporate a safe room into this facility, it was something to consider.”

Superintendent Jean Peterson said the safe room will be built to handle extreme conditions.

“With that structure able to withstand 250 mph winds, that's a very comforting thought,” Peterson said.

Peterson added that in a violent scenario, the safe room would be able to handle some of the 600 students and staffers inside the new facility.

“We will be able to lock that down for any reason, throughout the whole building,” Peterson said.

The current junior/senior high school building, which opened in the 1950s, lacks air conditioning. District voters in 2011 passed a $27.5 million bond to build a new school after failing to approve it in five previous referendums.

The outer shell of the new school is now in place and the rush is on to finish the roof before winter hits.

“The farmers know that people have had a hard time with the drought but it's been perfect weather conditions for construction,” Eddy said. “In the last four months, they've made incredible progress and I think they've only missed one day because of rain.”