A demolished Shell gas station is seen along Gloster Street after a tornado in Tupelo, Miss., Monday, April 28, 2014. (Photo/The Daily Mississippian, Thomas Graning)
Monday afternoon, tornadoes ripped across the state, devastating many communities. UM Associate Provost and Crisis Action Team member Noel Wilkin sat down with The Daily Mississippian to explain how students and faculty members should react in the event of severe weather on campus.
Severe weather conditions including thunderstorms, hail and tornadoes plagued a number of counties across the state of Mississippi yesterday, leaving much chaos in their wake.
Though Lafayette County and Oxford managed to avoid most of the damage, the city of Tupelo, located approximately 50 miles east of Oxford, experienced significant tornadic devastation just minutes after the National Weather Service issued a warning at 2:30 p.m.
Kayleigh Webb, a senior English major at The University of Mississippi, saw the effects of the cyclone with her own eyes.
On Monday after her classes, she and her boyfriend decided to make the trip to Tupelo to visit his mother in the western part of town. As they approached the city, she noticed the weather grow progressively worse.
“The wind was insane, and it was raining so hard that you could barely even see the rain,” Webb said. “There was dime-sized hail, and that lasted for like 30 minutes. Then it slowly tapered off and everything was just quiet.”
Though she did not personally see the now-viral images of demolition on Tupelo’s North Gloster Street, she saw many traces of large debris, downed light poles and fallen trees.
Despite the massive devastation, Webb said that just hours after the tornado hit, she saw numerous city workers as well as citizens coming together to clean up the mayhem the tumultuous twister had left behind.
“It seems like the city of Tupelo is already in gear to getting stuff back in line,” Webb said. “There are people dragging limbs off the street. Some areas have power again.”
According to The Weather Channel’s website, the months with the overall greatest number of tornadoes are April, May and June. In the Southeast region, however, the peak season for these natural disasters is February through April.
Incidences of tornadic weather on college campuses are not an uncommon occurrence.
In late evening of April 27, 2011, the University of Alabama was devastated by a violent EF4 multiple-vortex tornado. Leaving a path of destruction of over 80 miles, the tornado killed 64 people, including six University of Alabama students, and caused approximately $2.4 billion of property damage.
Over the past two days, various RebAlerts regarding tornado watches and warnings were issued to students and faculty members of The University of Mississippi.
While the intent of these weather alerts was to inform students about possible hazards on campus, confusion surfaced regarding the degrees of danger to which the terms “tornado watch” and “tornado warning” refer.
The university’s Crisis Action Team, formed in 2008, is responsible for monitoring and notifying students and faculty of possible threats to the Ole Miss campus. The most common concern seen by the group is associated with weather. Associate Provost Noel Wilkin is a member of this team.
“A tornado watch means that the conditions are favorable for the formation of a tornado,” Wilkin said. “What we hope is that the alert tells people that they should prepare, know what they need to do in terms of when a tornado happens.”
Wilkin said a warning is the next step meteorologists use to describe the possible occurrence of severe weather. The issuance of a warning indicates that Doppler radar has gathered information that a tornado has formed or a civilian has physically spotted a tornado on the ground.
“The best way that I think about it is, ‘watch’ is plan, ‘warning’ is seek shelter.”
When preparing for severe weather conditions, such as a tornado, Wilkin said there is no such thing as being overly cautious. Familiarity with the recommendations for when a warning is issued is essential.
“You want to go to the lowest possible floor, an interior room with no windows,” Wilkin said. “That’s the safest place to be during a tornado.
“If they are in class or something is going on when a warning is issued, and the sirens go off, all university activities are automatically suspended,” he said. “That policy is posted on our website. If the sirens go off, then everybody needs to seek shelter immediately.”
Wilkin stressed that when tornado sirens sound, it is of the utmost importance to pay attention and know what to do.
“The sirens mean that a tornado is headed for Oxford,” Wilkin said. “We don’t set them off when there’s a tornado hitting Lafayette County but not coming anywhere near Oxford. It is when Oxford is in the line of the tornado.”
Wilkin said that he and his fellow Crisis Action Team members will continue to provide the university with accurate and relevant danger alerts in the future, but being well-educated when it comes to weather precautions is the ultimate way to ensure protection.
“We strive for excellence in notifying our campus in what’s happened, what’s happening,” Wilkin said. “It’s up to people to know what to do. Your safety is your own responsibility.”
For further weather and RebAlert updates, follow @RebAlert on Twitter or visit the olemiss.edu/emergency webpage.
— Lacey Russell
dmeditor@gmail.com
