Example Damage to School Structures from the 3 May 1999 Tornado Outbreak: How Safe Is Your School’s Tornado Emergency Plan?

Typically, tornadoes occur between 4 PM and 6 PM when children are at home. Using weather reports from local television and radio stations along with the safety procedures learned at school, children survive severe storms. How many of these children would survive at school following the school’s emergency plan? Twice a year schools conduct tornado drills. However, in many cases these plans move children to unsafe areas of the building.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) organized a Building Performance Assessment Team (BPAT) to survey the May 3rd tornado damage. The BPAT reviewed the emergency plans of five public schools. Problems found with the school emergency plans included: students remaining in classrooms with interior doors surrounded by glass, students moved to interior hallways with glass windows along the upper edge of the walls, and students moved near substantial looking walls that would not have proved resistant to strong winds or debris.

The 1999 BPAT report on the May 3rd tornadoes is the first building performance assessment of damage created by violent tornadoes. The problems BPAT found with school emergency plans need to be communicated to other schools in tornado-prone areas. School officials need to know that having an emergency plan does not mean having the safest plan possible. New research, better building codes, and greater forecast lead-times all contribute to successfully implementing the emergency plan. Ignoring improvements in any of these areas and not updating the school’s emergency plan jeopardizes the safety of everyone in the school.

Every school must have their tornado emergency plan reviewed for possible weaknesses. The reviews must be conducted by a qualified engineer or architect. Additionally, the Warning Coordination Meteorologist (WCM) of your local National Weather Service Office has been trained to identify safe areas within schools. Once weaknesses have been identified school administrators, teachers, parents and the local emergency management office should work together to either improve existing structures eliminating the weaknesses or add new structures with better resistance to strong winds.