BY HANNAH GOLDFINGER
HGOLDFINGER
@OPELIKAOBSERVER.COM
SMITHS STATION —Smiths Station broke ground Monday on its new storm shelter, which will be located right behind city hall.
“I appreciate all of you coming out,” said Smiths Station Mayor Richard Cooley. “… This project basically began back in March of 2019 when the tornado came through the communities of Beauregard and Smiths Station. We lost 23 lives in our sister community of Beauregard.”
From that point on, Smiths began working on a community storm shelter.
Back in December, 2023, the city made real progress toward the reality of its storm shelter, including an agreement for funding and the project management and design.
“This facility, when complete, will hold a little more than 500 souls and protect them from the elements,” Cooley said. “In addition to serving as a safe place during the weather, we plan to utilize it throughout the year as a multi-function building.”
When the building is complete, the city will host an open house, Cooley said, to have another celebration.
“This day would not come to fruition without the hard work and endless hours and dedication of a number of individuals,” he said.
Eddie Culpepper, the city’s FEMA consultant, shared a few specifics on the building itself.
“This particular building … [it’s] a little over 5,000 square foot in size and will be able to accommodate 515 people, he said. “One of the unique things about this particular building is if you had a tornado coming and it was right on top of you and you didn’t want to open the structure up to expose the people that are already in there, it’s got a little section that those late-comers can go into and its a safe room in itself.”
The building is rated for 250 mile per hour winds, Culpepper said.
Cooley thanked each of the council members, plus many others who were involved in the project, before he and the council broke ground on the project.
