NEOSHO, Mo. (AP) - A southwestern Missouri school district is making plans to build a nearly 14,000-square-foot tornado shelter on its high school campus.
The Neosho district applied unsuccessfully last year for funding to build a shelter. But a public engineer told the Neosho R-5 School Board last week that prospects are better now for getting a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The Neosho Daily News reports (http://bit.ly/qg1bwS) the shelter would hold about 2,200 people and be designed to withstand an EF-5 tornado - the same strength as the tornado that devastated Joplin, about 20 miles to the north, in May of this year.
Neosho is the seat of Newton County, where a tornado killed more than a dozen people in 2008.
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Information from: Neosho Daily News, http://www.neoshodailynews.com