CLAREMORE, Okla. — It seems like a no-brainer for Oklahomans to have a storm shelter.
But it's not the need that deters people from getting one.
“We were going to put this in when we first built the house, but we were like, ah, we didn’t want to spend the money," said AJ Rhine. "I wish we would have done it sooner.”
Rhine's lived in Claremore his whole life. He's experienced many tornadoes, and he always makes the trip across town to his parents' house to use their shelter. Now, with two young kids, those uncertain storm nights have become a bit more complicated.
“It’s usually pretty hectic because we’re trying to judge whether or not ‘hey is this really serious, do we need to go take shelter?’" he said.
Rogers County officials know Rhine isn't alone. Most people don't have their own shelter.
So, they applied for a grant program through the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help ease the burden of their citizens.
“In Rogers County, we don’t really have very many public storm shelters, and public storm shelters are very difficult to manage," said Scotty Stokes, Director of Rogers County Emergency Management. "They’re very expensive, there’s not a lot of money available out there for public storm shelters... so we opted for the individual safe room grant that helps the individuals.”
The county was awarded more than half a million dollars, which is funding 170 individual safe rooms.
It's also a reimbursement program. So residents like Rhine who install a shelter through the grant can get up to 75% of what they spend, or $3000, back in their pockets.
“The program actually started before we had the tornado come through in May, so it really pushed the state to move a little quicker with us to get the process started because they knew there was definitely a need with a lot of reconstruction going on," said Stokes.
Rhine opted for a below ground shelter, to maximize space and keep it out of sight, out of mind.
They spent a little more than the grant covered, but with a young family, he said it's worth the extra investment.
“The total of it was $4,200," said Rhine. "I’d be happy spending 1200 dollars every day for the sense of protection now that we feel that we have with this... Hopefully we’re not spending too much time in there. Maybe it’s just a few minutes, but having it right out here in our garage is going to be a sense of protection and it’s easy to come out here now, we don’t have to get out in the storm and the wind and the rain or travel to go get into something for safety.”
As of early December, 90 of the 170 shelters had been claimed. Once the grant has been used in full, the county will consider reapplying for more funds.
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