Tornad-whoa: DPS says everything went according to plan

Harsh winds, cold rain and dark clouds heralded the arrival of conditions favorable for a tornado in Orange County Wednesday afternoon.

While the University did not cancel classes, Department of Public Safety spokesperson Randy Young said measures were taken to ensure the safety of students on campus. Alert Carolina messages were sent out to inform students about the situation and to advise them to move indoors.

“Well, first of all, we had been monitoring the system for some time. We had been watching this, and obviously the media has been paying particular attention to it,” Young said.

He said DPS was ready to respond when the storm moved closer to the University.

“In the event of a severe thunder storm warning, we issue a text message and a campus-wide email and there’s a certain level of alert that goes out with that,” he said.

He said Alert Carolina texts did not announce the cancellation of classes because doing so might place students in jeopardy.

“This is not something where we specifically mention in the warning that classes are canceled,” Young said. “But we also don’t want faculty or staff dismissing folks out into the severity of the storms.”

He said he hopes students stayed in their classrooms or found another safe place indoors.

Virginia Callison, a senior Asian studies and economics major, said she was in the Undergraduate Library when she received the alert.

“The sirens started going off when I was sitting upstairs by the windows, and the librarians came on and said everyone has to go to the basement,” she said. “So there was kind of this mass exodus to the basement.”

She said most of the students were not concerned about the tornado.

“Lots of people were joking around, lots of people were still working — I was still working,” she said.

For Adam Hall, a sophomore global studies major, finding a safe place was an issue. Adam, who lives in Parker Residence Hall, said he asked a group of employees to let him into Carmichael Residence Hall when he heard the sirens.

“They were kind of poking their head out of the back doors,” Hall said. “So I walk up to them and I’m like ‘Hey, can I come in? Because there’s a tornado outside’ and they’re like ‘Oh no, you can’t come in here, just go around front.’”

Hall said he was unable to enter Carmichael because he didn’t live there.

“I mean I kind of knew I wasn’t in any immediate danger, but that kind of thing, it’s like why do they put their job over the life of another human being?”

Young said DPS has not formally reviewed yesterday’s events, but things seem to have gone well.

“I think by and large folks got to where they needed to be, which is hunkered down and safe, which is what we want to see happen,” he said.

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