Increases in tornadic event days and Mid-Missouri storm shelters

Each spring, sirens can be heard all across the state warning thousands of Mid-Missouri residents to possibility of an approaching tornado. According to data from 1979-2022, more and more of these warnings might be seen as we head into the future.

Although Texas and Oklahoma have seen a decrease in tornadic event days each decade of -1 to -2, Mid-Missouri has seen an increase in tornadic event days of 2 to 3 days per decade. This means possibly more tornadoes in the region putting more lives at risk.

Each year the United States sees close to 1,000 tornadoes. Of those, 33% percent of those are known as destructive tornadoes at a rating of EF-2 and above. This large quantity of deadly and destructive tornadoes calls for many American's to have a plan in case the worst case scenario strikes.

Looking into public shelters across Mid-Missouri, there seems to be an absence for community members to use in the event of a tornado warning occurring. Currently the state of Missouri has no listed website or resource to highlight public storm shelters. After speaking to both SEMA and FEMA, a very short list was revealed by checking through grants.

One of the very few highlighted in the region was located in the city of Holts Summit. Brandon Ruediger who is the city administrator for Holts Summit says their 400 person capacity shelter was mostly funded by a FEMA grant.

Boone county currently has no publicly advertised shelters for community members yet boasts a homeless population of 261 according to the Boone county health and human services department . A large percentage of this population exists in Columbia. The City of Columbia and the Boone county emergency management office were both contacted about potential future plans for the building of a public shelter. According to a media release, Boone county and the City of Columbia have not previously applied for FEMA eligible grants, and there is no current plans to build one.