A multi-use facility at Copiah-Lincoln Community College is headlining $24.8 million in federal funding to advance safe room projects across Mississippi.
The funding was made available by the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s hazard mitigation grant program. U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) announced that projects in Webster and Tate counties are also being funded, as they received planning and design awards in 2024.
In Wesson, $16,294,746 has been allocated to support phase II of Co-Lin’s safe room project. Officials plan to construct a nearly 35,000-square-foot, multipurpose structure on the school’s main campus. The facility will be able to accommodate more than 2,000 occupants. An additional $175,000 administrative grant was also awarded for this project.
In Webster County, $6,693,200 has been dished out at the federal level to fund a safe room project that will harden an existing building to protect the county’s emergency operations center and accommodate almost 1,300 people, including city, school, and judicial officials, within 8,684 square feet of space.
The Magnolia Heights safe room project in Tate County received $1,727,851 in federal funding. The money is going toward a more than 6,000-square-foot tornado safe room to protect 650 students and 80 faculty at the Magnolia Heights School.
“We’ve been through enough severe storms in Mississippi to understand the value of safe rooms,” Hyde-Smith, who serves on the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee that has jurisdiction over FEMA, said. “I’m pleased with these FEMA hazard mitigation grants to create more safe spaces in our state.”
FEMA’s hazard mitigation grant program funds are issued on a 90/10 cost-share basis, with safe rooms expected to be designed to protect against winds of up to 250 miles per hour. The 90/10 cost-share means that the federal government covers 90% of the price for projects, while local governments are responsible for paying for the remaining 10%.