VIDEO: ICC Reveals Its New Safe Room For Students And Faculty

FULTON, Miss. (WCBI)- On Monday, Itawamaba Community College unveiled a new, nearly 6 million dollar safe room.

The facility can hold more than 23 hundred students and withstand wind speeds up to 250 miles per hour.

The building will also serve as the school’s band hall.

ICC president, Dr. Jay Allen said the safety of students and faculty is the school’s top priority.

“With the record number of tornadoes in the area and what happened in Smithville a couple of years ago, it really became paramount with 1000 students living on campus, as well as 25 hundred or so people being on campus every day during the day, it’s really a no-brainer for us to have a facility like this on our campus,” said Dr. Jay Allen, ICC president.

“There is a section of the building where our practice rooms are and our offices are, and when and if the weather were to turn, we could quickly move from one part of the building into another part of the building and that’s unique,” said Todd Ryan, ICC Band Director. “A lot of places you would have to leave whatever building you are in to go to a safe room.”

Dr. Allen said the school has already put the new facility to use.

When a tornado touched down back in August, students and faculty used the safe room to ride out the storm.