SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) -- A new safety facility has opened at Missouri State University in Springfield, just in time for severe weather season.
Springfield television station KYTV reports the facility can hold roughly 1,200 people and withstand up to 250 mph winds. It's the school's first storm shelter rated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The university's emergency preparedness manager, David Hall, says the school's 24-hour dispatch center has a video camera surveilling the shelter and the ability to unlock it remotely.
In the coming weeks, the university will send letters to nearby residents letting them know about the space, when it will be open, and what to during an impending storm.
The university paid for 25 percent of the $1.8 million project. Federal grants supplied the rest of the funding.