As winter comes to an end and spring blesses us with its bipolar weather, the inevitable creeps up on us. This would be nothing other than our lovely Nebraska tornadoes. Anyone who has been in Nebraska knows the impact tornadoes can have on a building. Unfortunately, tornadoes are unpredictable and love to show up at the most inconvenient times, like during school. To combat this, Divine Shepherd Church has decided to introduce a new storm shelter which they have now unveiled.
The storm shelter, built right inside the parking lot of Divine Shepherd, is engineered to withstand the strength of an EF5 tornado. Its base is an entire concrete slab, with steel walls embedded by metal plates onto it. It’s designed to hold 93 people and includes a generator that provides power for up to eight hours, alongside two solar panels that sit right on top, in the case of a power outage. The shelter is ventilated with multiple screens that are covered with more steel paneling. Emergency medical supplies, a makeshift toilet, and a large fan are also found inside the shelter.
Pastor Brent Smith said that the project was driven by the public’s requests to accommodate more children in the church’s daycare. The church has an internal tornado shelter, which they refer to as “The Cave” that holds 180 people. However, Smith said that while the Cave is large, it did not abide by laws to add additional children to the Daycare.
“There is a great demand for more children to be added to the Little Lamb Preschool and Childcare,” he said, “The laws of Douglas County require us to have additional storm shelter space.”
Initially, ideas to expand the underground shelter were on the table.
“We worked with engineers and architects to see if some renovation inside the building could be done to make an internal storm shelter. But none of those solutions worked,” Smith said.
Chase Nuzum, the Operations Coordinator, added onto this, saying, “The area inside the church just wouldn’t have met the standards, like having enough square footage in the storm shelter per kid, having a bathroom, fire alarms, etcetera.”
Thankfully, a member of Rubicon Construction came up with the idea to add an external storm shelter right outside the church. With some discussion, the church agreed it would be the best move for expansion, and brought it to the county. The county approved the plans, and so, funding for the shelter began.
Funding for the $250,000 shelter started during the 40th celebration of the Preschool and Childcare, and the goal was easily met in two months. Construction began late winter, and the plan was to create the concrete base, then place the steel shell and weld it right on top. The beginning of construction started off a little rocky, as Nuzum said, “It was definitely something to watch out for, because while it was being put in, we had to use a crane to drop the actual steel part right onto it.” Additionally, Rhonda DeVries, the director of Little Lamb Preschool and Childcare, said that construction took longer than expected, with winter weather storms delaying the process even further.
The storm shelter finally completed its construction right around when March rolled in. While its intentions are mainly for the Preschool and whoever else is on the church’s campus, in the situation that the shelter was needed and members of the congregation were available, it would be unlocked and open for those in need. DeVries said, “The church is more than happy to accommodate those who find themselves in the situation alongside us.”
DeVries adds that quarterly tornado drills will be held for the children in the preschool to help them learn how to access the shelter quickly and safely.
