Fairhope Building $1.9M Hurricane Safe Room For First Responders

By: Isabella Gomez
Blue RAM Media/Gulf Coast News

August 19, 2026

FAIRHOPE, Ala. A new storm shelter has been designed and is being built specifically for first responders and city personnel to be used in times of hurricanes and tornadoes.

The 4,000-square-foot room being built on Pecan Avenue is designed to protect against wind speeds up to 200 miles per hour. It will accommodate over 70 local police, fire, public works and utility first responders, along with first responders from neighboring agencies when needed according to the city’s announcement.

“We have no certified housing to keep our people in, in the city, to ride out a high-wind event such as a hurricane,” Fairhope’s City Engineer Richard Johnson said in a council meeting.

That’s why the city of Fairhope is building its first hurricane safe room, designed specifically to give those workers a safe space to take cover.

“This would also give us the ability, in the event that we knew we were going to have a catastrophic event to go ahead and stage utility crews and then have them ready to go in the event of a storm,” Fairhope’s Mayor Sherry Sullivan said in the council meeting.

Thanks to a hazard mitigation grant from FEMA, construction on the $1.9 million safe room is underway. Officials expect the safe room to be ready before next hurricane season.

The City of Foley and Orange Beach have similar safe rooms under construction and other cities in Alabama are considering building their own similar shelter.
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