Perhaps the only thing that doesn’t confuse us about the new $3.4 million Adams County Community Safe Room is the name.

The county wisely named the building after the late Louis Gunning, whose work as director of the Natchez Community Stewpot helped save hundreds if not thousands of lives.

But unlike Mr. Gunning’s work, which was rooted in providing a clear, simple and necessary service — food for the needy — the safe room seems to be far less practical.

Emergency management officials say the 10,000-square-foot building was slated to withstand the strongest category of tornado, the deadly and destructive, EF5.

Of the $3.4 million price tag, approximately $3.2 million was paid for through a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant, approximately $100 for every man, woman and child in the county. The county covered the remainder through a combination of real and in-kind services.

How and when the building will be utilized has been somewhat unclear.

The safe room’s structure seems to indicate it is best for surviving a tornado. The challenge, however, is that for tornado events, rarely do residents receive enough warning to allow them to travel safely to a shelter.

Mostly the building appears to have been built because a federal grant existed and county leaders simply didn’t want to lose out on the federal money. Sadly, with the added cost of maintaining another public building, the funds available for building maintenance likely will be rationed further.

The building’s highest use appears to be as a storm shelter for nearby Natchez High School, should a tornado spring up and bear down on Natchez.

That’s a worthy cause and one for which Gunning which would have certainly approved, but knowing Gunning, he’d have preferred to do the work far more frugally.