Baldwin County opened its first official Level II medical needs community shelter June 21 in Bay Minette.

It is a sanctuary from hurricanes and tornadoes intended by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for those with special medical needs living at home, including:

• People with mild dementia without abusive or wandering behavior.

• Ostomy or catheter patients.

• People experiencing frequent incontinence.

• People requiring assistance with injected medication.

• Oxygen, nebulizer or sleep apnea therapy that has been stabilized at home for 30 or more days.

• Hospice patients.

• Intravenous patients.

• Simple bandage dressing changes.

• Peritoneal dialysis, if either self administered or with family assistance.

The brick-laden and windowless structure was built with reinforced concrete and can handle 200 mph wind, according to Baldwin County Emergency Management Agency Director Leigh Anne Ryals.

“We feel a lot more comfortable having buildings like this,” Ryals said.

The hurricane haven resembles a prison, except the steel bars used to lock the doors are on the inside and it’s got a cheerier decor.

There is enough room for 25 patients with one caregiver each. But if a disaster strikes, those numbers aren’t set in stone, according to Alabama Public Heath Service Administrator Andy Mullins.

“We would not turn people away,” Mullins said. “We’ll make room.”

However, they will send the refugees to another shelter if it’s packed too full or if they don’t fit the criteria for that specific shelter.

“We will put people in the shelter that they need best,” Mullins said.

Other shelters include the Senior Citizen shelter at Central Baldwin Middle School or the general public shelters at Baldwin County High School, Fairhope High School, Robertsdale High School, Spanish Fort High School or Daphne East Elementary.

The Association of Retarded Citizens of Baldwin County has its own shelter at Bay Minette Middle School.

The shelter also has its own generator and necessary equipment is stored there, an aspect which makes it unique from all of Baldwin County’s other shelters.

“All we have to do is bring in the staff and we’re ready to go,” Mullins said.

During a storm, there will be two teams of eight professionals trading off 12-hour shifts. The teams will consist of two nurses, two nurses’ aides, a social worker, an environmentalist for food safety, a general safety officer and an administrative person.

There are even a couple rooms available to isolate potentially contagious conditions and everything is wheelchair accessible.

All of Baldwin County’s shelters are strategically located within one mile of a hospital, according to Ryals. So, if there’s a condition or emergency the staff isn’t equipped to handle, the patients will be shipped there promptly.

The shelter, located at 207 North White Ave., is one of three in Baldwin County intended to provide medical support, but the other two are to be staffed with only a couple emergency medical technicians — a fact which makes them electrical support shelters and not official Level II medical needs community shelters.

Pat Harris, with the Baldwin County Council on Aging, can remember a time when the medical needs shelters were converted courthouses with school buses blocking the windows.

Now, Harris is working on a plan to get every senior in Baldwin County a personal emergency plan.

But as for Baldwin County’s medical needs shelter, John Hankins, director of Public Health Nursing, Alabama Department of Public Health, is confident the shelter will hold up.

“We could sustain here very well throughout an event,” he said. “This is the best designed medical needs shelter I’ve seen in my career.”