One of the largest tornado shelters in the state is coming to East Alabama.

Some residents call Piedmont "tornado alley." One reason for that name is the devastation left behind after a deadly tornado ripped through the Goshen United Methodist Church on Palm Sunday, 1994. Twenty people were killed inside the church, including six children. The area has been hit hard by tornados in the past.

Earlier this year students at Piedmont High School reacted to a tornado warning during class. Ally Harper says "They made us go into the hall and sit by the lockers and put our heads down. It was a little scary."

A one million dollar tornado shelter will ease that fear. It's coming to Piedmont High School. It will be an above ground shelter able to withstand two hundred seventy mile per hour winds. That's enough room for a thousand people, not just students. It's a shelter for the community.

According to Superintendent Mike Akin, "We're a community school system and that's just gravy to be able to offer something to protect and ease the minds of the community."

FEMA (web|news) grant money will pay to build the shelter by the band practice field at Piedmont High. It will be complete by February 2009.

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