BATON ROUGE - Shortly after the flood of 2016, FEMA granted the Baton Rouge City-Parish government over $12 million. The City-Parish then reached out to BREC in hopes that they would be interested in building new recreational centers.

The new buildings, which would be over 30,000 square feet, would be used primarily for community use. The only time it would be used as a safe room is if a natural disaster occurs.

These new recreational centers are being fully funded through FEMA, so local tax dollars that go to BREC can be used for other projects.

BREC's Director of Communication Cheryl Michelet says these safe rooms will allow first responders to arrive to emergencies quicker from the center part of the parish to the southern part of of the parish.

One safe room would be located off of Airline Highway, which would be the thirteenth community park in Baton Rouge, and the other would be at the Memorial Stadium Complex.

Michelet says the centers cover the north, central and east Baton Rouge parishes, which allows them to act as readily available facilities in case of emergency.

The safe rooms would provide showers, bedding, food and plenty of room for both evacuees and first responders.

BREC is already working toward getting approval for design and engineering, which will take place later this year. The next step is to issue a proposal.

Michelet says a lot of the time would be taken up by design firms making construction documents. Thus, construction would not begin until 2025.