Caraway, AR — (JonesboroRightNow.com) — May 22, 2025 — After the Caraway City Council voted to build a new storm shelter in April, the project is nearing completion and will open soon.
“The City Council voted on it April 10 and they got started pretty quickly after that with the breaking ground,” said City of Caraway administrative assistant Terry Gauf. “They started it after that and this week they have taken off the [construction framework].”
The final step is to install a door, then the shelter will be complete.
With a capacity of 100 people, the shelter cost $12,000, which Gauf said came from the city’s one-cent fund that helps to support the city. Located directly behind the gazebo on E. Kentucky Street, across the street from the Caraway Post Office, this is the second shelter for the city.
“We decided to just bite the bullet and I think we are still going to try to reach out and try to get grants for more shelters to have more across the city, but right now we decided to get an extra shelter because the only other one we have that is for the community is out at the school [Riverside East Elementary],” she said.
“If we are able to get a grant to get others, we’re going to spread them out and put them where everybody can get to it more quickly because like Friday when we had that came through,” Gauf continued. “It was gone by the time everybody realized something was happening. It was gone and nobody had time to get anywhere because nobody was really expecting it to get there that quickly.”