Plainview School Principal Ronald Bell talks about the construction of a new safe room for the school and community in the wake of tornados that struck Rainsville and the school in April 2011. Each of eight sections of the safe room weigh in at 49 tons.
Plainview SchoolRAINSVILLE, Ala. — Students weren’t at Plainview School the day tornadoes killed 33 people in DeKalb County, Ala., including a Plainview freshman, her mother and stepfather.
But the school’s 38 portable buildings, storm debris still piled throughout Rainsville and a new, life-saving safe room at the heart of the campus are constant reminders of what happened that day in 2011.
And if the winds of April come calling again, Plainview is ready.
Once directional signs are in place, the school — and when schools aren’t in session, the community — will have an almost 400-ton, concrete space where they can seek shelter, Principal Ronald Bell said.
If school hadn’t been called off because of early storm warnings last year, Bell believes people at the 1,050-student, K-12 school almost certainly would have been injured or killed, despite tornado drills and standard emergency planning.