The southwest Missouri city of Carthage is getting a community safe room to help protect against tornadoes.
The Joplin Globe reports the city of 14,000 is located in a county in which 13 tornado reports were recorded in the past 20 years.
Gov. Jay Nixon told students at Carthage Middle School on Tuesday that the State Emergency Management Agency has approved a proposal to build a safe room at the school. The room will be able to hold 2,079 students, staff and residents. The safe room is the eighth built by the district since the 2011 Joplin tornado, but the first in Carthage to be open to the public.
The project involves a new middle school gym with 14-inch precast concrete walls and reinforced steel doors.
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