The county storm shelter project is one step closer to being complete.

Three additional storm shelters that the Dallas County Emergency Management Agency are providing to the county, thanks to a federal funding from the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, were constructed Monday behind Dallas County Horse Arena on Dallas County Road 65, on Pecan Road in the Plantersville area and at Southside High School on Alabama Highway 80.

Two of the storm shelters, the ones at Southside High School and Valley Grande, have been placed on concrete slabs, but the weekend rain stopped Safe-T- Shelter from placing the shelter on the site in Plantersville.

“We did have a problem with the shelter in Plantersville being that Plantersville seen a little more rain yesterday than Valley Grande or Selma or Southside,” Rhonda Abbott, the director of Dallas County EMA, said. “They were unable to get into that site, and actually set the shelter on the slab. The shelter is there, but it’s on the ground.”

Safe-T-Shelter will return the first week in December to place the Plantersville storm shelter on its site.

Abbott said that although the shelters are positioned at their desired locations, they are not ready for public use. She said construction workers still have to secure the shelters.

“It will be the middle of December for Southside and Valley Grande shelters to be complete,” Abbott said. “It will probably be close to the first of the year before Plantersville is actually complete.”

The storm shelters are FEMA approved and able to withstand wind up to 250 mph. It can fit 120 people with the potential to fit even more.

“If you have substantial weather, you can pack people in these things,” Abbott said. She said that the shelter in Bakersville, which is identical to the new additions in Dallas County, is an example of the durability of the shelters.

“Last year, Bakersville actually had a tree to fall on their shelter, and their shelter was not damaged at all,” Abbott said. “It had probably a 100 surplus people inside that shelter where that tree fell.”

Abbot said she hopes the community will use the shelters once they are completed.

“It is the commission’s hope and my hope as well that people will take advantage of these shelters,” Abbott said.