When severe weather slams the River Valley citizens take shelter at tornado shelters all throughout Fort Smith.
Following the rules and regulations of tornado shelters play a large part in keeping the River Valley safe.
"Some of the problems that we've have had been purely people that just don't follow the rules,” said Dr. Benny Gooden.
There are set rules expected to be followed at the tornado safe room at Ramsey Junior High.
“They want to come and stay, they want to bring their dogs and their cats and other assorted animals,” said Gooden.
Those that don’t follow storm shelter rules could deal with legal action.
"If the person is being irate or causing problems and putting other people in jeopardy we may even have to be forced to have to put the person under arrest," said Corporal Patricia Sullivan.
Some homeowners said they prefer having the convenience of having a storm shelter in their backyard.
“It's nice to have just in case we have bad weather and bad circumstances like we've had in the past few weeks," said Clint Pulis.
"Just the convenience of it being here you know instead of having to gather some things up and run into a public building that may or may not be unlocked at the time,” said Stephen Dogner.
Dr. Gooden said that the doors of the tornado safe room at Ramsey Junior High will open automatically through a computer system when sirens go off.
The safe room is designed to hold up to 1,000 during severe weather.