January 18, 2019
By: Dwayne Page
It wasn’t an actual storm alert but students at DeKalb West School filed into the tornado safe room Friday morning.
The tornado drill was staged for News2 StormTracker meteorologist Davis Nolan and a camera crew who videoed the event for a weather special to be aired in February and March.
Nolan, who visited DeKalb West for a career day last year, happened to notice the tornado safe room at that time and wanted to return for a feature story.
“I found this fascinating,” said Nolan.
“We came back here because they have this tornado shelter which withstands 250 mile per hour winds. There may be others but I have only seen one other school that has this up in Paris, Tennessee,” he said
“All schools have kids go to a hallway that is an interior part of the school and that is usually the safest place to be with those big cinderblock walls which are safe but they could still be knocked down. But you’re not going to see many tornadoes in Tennessee that will ever be able to penetrate this thing,” Nolan said.
The segment featuring DeKalb West School will be part of the News2 Storm Tracker Family Weather Day Special in February.
“We’re doing a weather special on Wednesday, February 27 called our News2 StormTracker Family Safety Day Road Block and there will be a story in every newscast. There will be eight different stories during the day. This will be one of them. On March 2 we will have a special at 6 p.m. featuring all the stories and we will repeat that special on March 9 at 4:30 p.m. During the segment on DeKalb West School we will talk about why and how this tornado safe room was built and how it was paid for,” said Nolan.
Nolan added that he was impressed with how quickly the students gathered in the tornado safe room during the drill.
“They did this tornado drill for us and we actually got to see them go in the hallway and take their positions and they were very quick,” he said.
The tornado safe room area, funded by a FEMA grant along with state and local funds, was completed in 2014 and opened with the start of school that year.
The shelter has been used several times during actual storm alerts for students, staff, and parents.