The cities of Warrior and Fultondale could be in line for community safe rooms to protect residents from tornadoes, if a federal grant comes through.

The cities have applied for their share of funding for a project by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The agency has allocated just under $5.3 million for Jefferson County communities to divide among applying cities.

So far, six cities have put in requests, plus the county’s emergency management agency. Birmingham alone is seeking funds to install 20 shelters, costing more than $10 million. Warrior is seeking $46,620, while Fultondale has applied for $1,229,743.

“We’ve been in contact with Chris Jolly, our grant writer, to see what we need to do to proceed with this,” Warrior Mayor Rena Hudson said. “We certainly want to have a safe shelter in case of another tornado or bad weather. We are pursuing this vigorously.”

Hudson said the former National Guard Armory is a preliminary choice for a location.

Building Inspector Darryl Aldrich is in charge of Fultondale’s effort. His city hopes to get money for two shelters: one which would also serve as a command center, located behind city hall and near the fire station; the other on Walker Chapel Road near the new fire

station being built. The shelters would hold 400 and 300 people, respectively.

“A community shelter needs to be near a civic building or a fire hall. We’re going to have a command center out of ours. You can build on top of them. It’ll house functions we need to ride out a storm,” Aldrich said. “We feel like we need both shelters, considering what we’ve gone through.”

Fultondale suffered a direct hit from the April 2011 tornadoes; the city was the last to be hit by the EF-4 twister that began near the Alabama-Mississippi border and destroyed much of Tuscaloosa, Pleasant Grove and Pratt City. Warrior was not hit by a tornado on April 27, but did have considerable damage from a severe thunderstorm that produced straight-line winds that morning.

The fact that Fultondale had so much damage works in its favor for this grant, Aldrich said. He isn’t sure why Birmingham needs 20 shelters, despite its size.

“Birmingham has a lot already. They have a lot of old fallout shelters and other buildings with underground floors in place already. We don’t have a lot of buildings with underground floors here,” he said.

As with most federal projects, the process is slow and covered with red tape. Aldrich has seen such ordeals before, and is prepared.

“We’re going to hang in there and try to ride and see how it goes. If you don’t put in for it, you’ll never get it. But if you do, you’ve got to fight for it. Warrior needs to do that, too, because they need a shelter up there,” he said.

“If they award us one [shelter], bids have to go out to spend the federal money. That may take up to a year. There’s so much red tape to go through. It’s overkill, but that’s their way.”

The Brookside community has had such a community shelter for 400 people in place for some time, and it was put to good use on April 27.

“They had 270 in there last time. If it’s there, the people will use it,” Aldrich said.