Mark Calavan still remembers his fear when a tornado came up the South Canadian River toward Porum in May 2001.

“We had just come up with the safest ways of handling our children,” said Calavan, who was Porum School superintendent at the time. “But back in 2001, there was no place to be, so we had to put them in the hallways. That’s all we had, that’s what all the schools in the state had.”

The tornado passed the school, but Porum officials worked to get federal grants to build two safe rooms for their students.

Now that he’s superintendent of Checotah schools, Calavan is seeking funding for a safe room/tornado shelter for those students. However, he said he expects to have a harder time getting federal funding.

The best chance for a school or community to get federal money for a disaster safe room is to go through a disaster first. Bill Pinka, with the Oklahoma Office of Emergency Management, said the Federal Emergancy Management Agency, FEMA, offers grants to schools and communities in counties that have been through such disasters as flooding, ice storms or tornadoes.

For example, during the ice storms of 2006 and 2007, the governor declared a state disaster, making schools and communities in the disaster areas eligible for federal grant funding.

The jurisdiction first must present a hazard mitigation plan.

That was how Muskogee Public Schools secured a grant to build a safe room at Tony Goetz Elementary School, said MPS facilities and maintenance director Wayne Johnson.

“After the 2006 ice storm, hazard mitigation funding became available, and we tagged that disaster for funding for the safe room,” he said.

The district was awarded a federal 75 to 25 matching grant for the project, originally estimated at around $300,000. Johnson said FEMA awarded $200,000 while the district made up a total of $89,000.

However, when bids were opened, bids came in way over budget, Johnson said, adding that the base bid ended up at $420,000. The district had already filed for a city building permit for $300,000, city records show.

Johnson said the district is going to seek more FEMA funding because it cannot afford to fund more on its own.

Tony Goetz Elementary, 2412 Haskell Blvd., was the first Muskogee school selected for a safe room because the school was designed with so many windows, Johnson said.

“The building has ceramic glaze glass, so it would be hard for children to practice the duck-and-cover procedure,” he said.

Duck-and-cover is a posture that is said to keep people from being injured in a tornado.

Muskogee Public Schools also was seeking FEMA grants for safe rooms at Harris-Jobe Elementary and Muskogee High School. Johnson said older schools such as Sadler Arts Academy have basements, while newer schools better accommodate tornado prevention procedures, he said.

Calavan said Porum was able to obtain FEMA funding for its shelter because Muskogee County had a hazard mitigation plan.

Webbers Falls Schools also was able to build a 1,920 square-foot safe room with a FEMA grant funding $151,575 and the district funding $50,525 as part of a 2003 bond issue. The bond issue also included a new event center.

Webbers Falls School Superintendent Dudley Hume said the school has its wrestling program in the safe room. The room also has restrooms and a closet used to store such emergency supplies as blankets, as well as wrestling gear.

Hume said the room was built to hurricane specifications, with a capacity of 320 people. This would include all 250 students and 40 staff members, he said. Each person in the safe room has about 5 feet of space. Community members also can come to the shelter in emergencies, he said.

“We’ve used it plenty, at least three times a year, every time a tornado warning was issued,” he said. “It’s a big ole’ concrete box. The doors cost $2,000 apiece.”

Calavan said he hopes to get funding for a 600-person safe room at Checotah schools. The room will be part of a $15.4 million bond issue, set for Dec. 8, that also includes a new high school, he said.

Pinka said the state has no standards or requirements for schools wanting to build their own safe rooms without FEMA funding.

Fort Gibson Public Schools is building a 6,000 square-foot safe room entirely with funding from a bond issue passed last December, Superintendent Derald Glover said. He said the district will go out for bids in early December.

The safe room will accommodate students and staff for the two elementary schools, Glover said. High school students go to the lower level of the gym, and middle school students go to a basement in one of the school buildings.

Reach Cathy Spaulding at 684-2928 or cspaulding@muskogeephoenix.com