Tornado shelter grants of $2,000 may be coming

Help is expected to be available shortly to 50 more people wanting their own tornado safe rooms, Custer County Emergency Management Director Mike Galloway announced this week.
Galloway told county commissioners at their weekly meeting Monday that he has applied for a $100,000 grant he expects the county to receive from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the construction of new tornado shelters.
Plans are to distribute the money in $2,000 chunks to 50 qualified people wanting to build their own safe rooms. Qualified people are homeowners living in Custer County who have or can obtain enough money to pay for a shelter of their choice. If approved, they will be reimbursed up to $2,000 toward the cost.
The total cost of course depends on what the property owner wants. Galloway said a typical safe room is about $2,700, which would mean FEMA would pay $2,000 and the homeowner $700.
This will be the third year for Custer County to have a program similar to this, assuming the $100,000 grant is received. Galloway said the first one he did was in 2004 and the second one in 2014. In each of those he said there was only enough money to build 40 safe rooms, but the $100,000 this year will handle 50.
The building sites this time can be anywhere in Custer County, either inside any of the county’s incorporated municipalities or out in the country.
Galloway has scheduled three meetings on Wednesday, Nov. 28, to explain the program. They’ll be held at the Custer County Fairgrounds in south Clinton on U.S. Highway 183 at 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Interested parties need to attend only one of the meetings.
For Custer County to receive the $100,000 grant, Galloway said he’ll have to show there are enough qualified people in the county to receive $2,000 grants. Otherwise, the money will go to some other county.
To be eligible for a grant, people need to show ownership of the land, have money available to build the size and type of shelter they want, and have contacted a vendor who’s willing to construct it.
“They just get ready now,” said Galloway. “They don’t order it until we’ve selected the 50 people who are going to be reimbursed.”
Galloway said he already knows of about 20 people who are interested.
“It’s for individual families, and they have to own the land it’s going on,” he said. “I can check that through the assessor’s office at the courthouse.”
Anybody the owner wants to let in can use the shelters once they’re built.
“You can bring your grandchildren, your grandparents, anybody you want to protect from high winds,” he said. To meet FEMA guidelines, he said the safe rooms should be able to withstand 250-mile-an-hour winds.
“Individuals can build as big a facility as they want,” he continued, “but the most they’ll get back is $2,000. Most people can build a safe room for about $2,700, but we’ve also had some grandparents who wanted to get one that would hold a lot more. One Weatherford woman had one built under her driveway that held 30 people. She wanted all her grandchildren to be able to get in there. But she still got only $2,000 back.”
Before he can reimburse anyone their $2,000, Galloway said the homeowner will have to provide proof of payment to the vendor.
Asked if the shelters will be above ground or below ground, he said they can be either one.
“It’s the individual’s choice,” he said. “Above ground, underground, inside the house, outside the house, it just has to meet FEMA standards for a safe room.
Galloway said anyone wanting more information can attend one of the Nov. 28 meetings or call him at 323-4105 or on his cell phone at 580-331-9536.
“Or they can come to my office at the courthouse and visit,” he said. “I have brochures on about two dozen vendors we’ve used in the past. Or they can invest on their own.”
He said the application form is only about two pages long.