Topeka, KAN. (WIBW)--In a little more than a year, residents in the area around S.W. 61st and Wanamaker road will have a new tornado shelter in an unexpected place. Tornado's are no strangers to the sunflower state, so when Washburn-Rural High School officials planned a new gymnasium, they decided it should double-up as a tornado shelter.

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"We were victims in the 1966 tornado and we had no basement,” Joan Binkley said.

At that time, Joan and her husband had no place to go when the devastating tornado blew through the capital city. So Binkley is now thrilled her neighbors will have a safe place to go in the event of an emergency.

Crews are months into construction for a new underground gym, which will also house a state of the art tornado shelter. U.S.D. 437 was among the first in the county to receive a new federal grant dedicated to providing money for protective areas. Federal funds are funneling in at nearly $800,000 for the shelter. The 11,000 square foot
area is designed to hold up to 1,800 people.

"It also provides a better shelter for the number of patrons and attendees at athletic events,” Support Services Director Dennis Johnson said.

And it's the community access that excites Binkley.

"For those who don't have their own basements and shelters to go to, it would be a very central and easily located place to gather,” she said.

The new combination gym-tornado shelter should be finished sometime in January of 2011.