Ground broke last week on a nearly $5 million school gym that will also serve as a safe place during tornadoes.
The new gym at Belle Forest Elementary School in southeast Memphis will also serve as a safe room certified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The school will get the 11,000-square-foot, $5 million facility thanks, in part, to a $1.8 million FEMA grant announced for Shelby County Schools in December.
Construction on the tornado-safe room began last week and is expected to be complete next year, according to Schevonda Hunt, the former guidance counselor who spearheaded the Safe Space project for the school.
The gym will be the first of its kind in West Tennessee, Hunt said. While it will serve as a gym for the school, it will be open to community members in emergencies.
