Will White Auditorium be Emporia’s public storm shelter? Or wIll that designation go to another facility, either in place or yet to be built?
The Emporia Human Relations Committee is starting the discussion process after preliminary research was offered at Monday night’s meeting. Board member Wendi Soendker says the research involves reaching out to other Kansas communities to see what has worked and what hasn’t. Given the increasing number of high-traffic events downtown and the lack of storm shelters at most of Emporia’s mobile home parks — only two of the city’s 10 mobile home comunities have available shelters on site — Soendker says downtown is the best place for a shelter.
Any shelter also has to have reinforced concrete floors, ceilings and walls with no windows. On top of that, it has to hold hundreds of people. Cost estimates will be determined later, and staffing ideas will also have to be included in the overall plan.
City Housing Specialist Jeff Lynch says Monday’s update demonstrated a good start to the project.
White Auditorium is a natural option because of its location and the fact both Emporia Fire and Emporia Police have headquarters in the building, but in case of a disaster both departments would likely have minimal staffing in the building at best. The current proposal also mentions the possibility of creating a tornado-safe room in much the same way as Andover has done at one of its public parks.
Further discussions are coming before the proposal goes to the Emporia City Commission.
