Catoosa Public Schools announces cafeteria as new community storm shelter

CATOOSA, Okla. — Catoosa Public Schools announced they now have a storm shelter that is open for both students and the community.

FOX23 reported on Tuesday Catoosa Public Schools (CPS) announced it’s offering a solution for their community during severe weather.

In a recent social media post, CPS shared there are not many options for Catoosa residents to seek shelter when severe weather strikes. While some members of the community may have access to private storm shelters, many do not.

On Monday, Catoosa’s Board of Education unanimously approved the use of the Catoosa Public Schools Dome Cafeteria as a community storm shelter during their regularly scheduled meeting.

During severe weather, the Dome Shelter can be used and can accommodate around 500 people. The community shelter is on the same property as Wells Middle School.

FOX23 spoke with the district’s Assistant Superintendent Tim Ray and learned when the shelter will be available for the community.

Since 2016, the Catoosa Cafeteria located next to Catoosa High School has served a dual purpose.

It’s both a cafeteria and a storm shelter for students and staff.

Ray told FOX23 they’ve now decided to open the shelter to more than just students and staff.

“We knew that we wanted to make this facility available to our patrons in our school community outside of school hours,” he said. “We have a lot of areas, we have a lot of people in these areas close to the dome that need access to this and need to utilize this space because it’s a big space.”

Since the spring of 2023, the district has been working on opening the shelter to the community.

“We proposed the plan to our board of education, which of course they’d have to approve,” Ray said. “We’ve worked with the City, we’ve worked with the City chief and the police chief and the fire chief. This is a collaboration of Catoosa.”

The storm shelter will be open during their school hours, but the district will communicate on when it’s open to the public.

“We’d do it through Thrillshare, which is our school communication to our people,” Ray said. “We would also use our Facebook page, our school website, our City of Catoosa application and our school application. So, we have many forms.”

Access to the facility is reserved for instances of tornado watches. The facility will remain locked if tornado sirens have sounded, and CPS encourages residents to shelter in place.

“So, tornado watch is when this would be open to the community, and we would communicate that beforehand,” he said. “A tornado warning when the sirens are going off, that would not be the time to come here. We would recommend our people take shelter in place at that point.”

Ray said that this idea coming to life is a special situation.

“This is a FEMA tested approved storm shelter,” he said. “We feel very confident that our patrons and the people in the surrounding areas would come here and would be extremely safe.”

He said the storm shelter is fully functional and is ready for a storm.

Access will be available after school hours, which are 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

The school said if you have any questions about the shelter, you can reach out to their administration team at 918-266-8603.

Catoosa Public Schools said it’s excited to share this development with its community and will continue to communicate with the public concerning accessibility to the Dome Shelter as situations arise.

For more information, including a list of guidelines, click here.