Technician
monday april
18 2011
Raleigh, North Carolina
technicianonline.com
Massive Tornado hits Raleigh
Sanford, N.C.—up close and personal
Editor’s note: Staff writer Chelsey Francis was in her hometown of Sanford, N.C. when the tornado hit the area. This is her reflection on the damage sustained, one of the hardest hit areas. Living in North Carolina, you don’t really expect to have somewhere around 60 tornados touch down in one day. It’s even crazier to see one of the tornados form and rip through the lot right next to your uncle’s house. Saturday was a strange day in Sanford, N.C. The weather was weird all day. The air felt almost heavy. Chelsey T h at mor n i ng Francis I worked as the Student & clerk for my unresident of cle’s first auction, Sanford, N.C. which was held on his property. The auction was larger than we thought it was going to be with about 115 people there, not including the help. No one could have imagined that an hour and a half after they left would be chaos. Fortunately, by the time it started raining hard we were finished with cleaning up the auction and helping people load up their purchases. It had been raining off and on all day, but around 2:30 the bottom finally fell out. Around 3:15 p.m. on Saturday we were looking outside because of how dark it’d become. The sky made it look like it was night. It was storming when the tornado touched down and ripped apart the house beside us. The man that lived in the house was, fortunately, not home when his tractor trailer was thrown through the house. Watching the tornado develop was insane. Luckily, the tornado steered away from our house, but pulled tin from the roof of one of our sheds. Shortly after the tornado destruction beside our house, we heard the tornado had continued across the southern end of our county, towards the Lowe’s and Tractor Supply. Since I had been working at the auction all day, I wasn’t completely sure where my parents were, but they had said there was a chance they would be going to Lowe’s Saturday afternoon. Trying to find my parents to make sure they were okay was terrifying. Fortunately, they hadn’t made it to Lowe’s yet, so they were okay. In Sanford, the southern end of our county has been severely damaged. The roof of Tractor Supply was damaged. The Big Lots, right beside Tractor Supply, caught fire as a result of the tornado. Lowe’s, which is across the street from Tractor Supply and Big Lots, was demolished. The front corner of Lowe’s is gone and the front and side of the store collapsed after the roof was ripped off. Several of my friends and family friends are currently without a house because of the tornado. As of right now, according to Sanford police, no one was killed at Lowe’s. There have been two reported fatalities in Sanford, one of which was the result of an automobile accident.
Contributed by Matt Moore
Everett Tree Service works on removing a tree that landed on a house and shed in southern downtown Raleigh Sunday. Governor Bev Perdue declared a state of emergency and President Barak Obama pledged “whatever it takes to rebuild North Carolina.”
Campus considered lucky, ‘dodges bullet’ Severe weather overwhelmed much of North Carolina this weekend, but left N.C. State relatively safe. Brooke Shafranek Staff Writer
A severe storm cell swept across North Carolina Saturday, killing 22 and injuring 130 others as several tornadoes touched down across the region. Areas of Raleigh hit hardest were South Saunders Street, Stony Brook mobile home park, where three people died, and the area around Shaw University. Irma McClaurin, President of Shaw University, released a letter to all students and parents stating that the university would be closed for the remainder of the semester. According to the McClaurin, Shaw “students will be graded on the work they have accomplished to date. The Math and English Competency Exam requirements are suspended for this semester only.” The storms that hit North Carolina
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Photo slideshow of the damage caused by Saturday’s tornado.
were part of a three-day ordeal that hit the southern United States, killing more than forty people in total. North Carolina was hit the hardest and has the highest number of casualties, with 20 counties facing significant damage and over 200,000 people without power. Captain Jon Barnwell, patrol division commander for Campus Police, said there is no monetary estimate for the damage on campus. “It was a near miss, since the tornado was right next to campus. We have about 20 rooftops with wind damage on campus, and we are coordinating to get those cleaned up,” Barnwell said. “There was also flooding in certain areas, but with the potential of what could have happened we really dodged a bullet.” Sally Highsmith, sophomore in psychology, said she watched the storm from her Carroll Hall window. Each floor’s residents were forced from their
Contributed by Matt Moore
N.C. State Alumnus Tim Lanier with Everett Tree Service uses a chainsaw to remove a tree from a backyard in southern downtown Raleigh Sunday. Tree limbs and power lines littered the streets after the storm passed.
rooms into the elevator lobby, away from all windows. “My residence hall was under lockdown and a few of us left the safe area to go to my room to check out the storm. We literally saw the entire thing—you could see the tornado
from my window. I’ve never seen rain go sideways before,” Highsmith said. “It was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. I think panic-mode set in, because I didn’t even know what to
TORNADO continued page 3
Campus procedures reviewed in light of storm Students on campus followed housing procedures in order to stay safe during the storm. Elise Helgar Staff Writer
Students who were in dorms on campus got quite the scare Saturday afternoon when one of the biggest storms to hit North Carolina blew directly past campus. Resident advisors in the dorms followed housing procedures in an effort to keep all students safe. According to Derek Spicer, a resident advisor in Turlington Hall, an RA’s first job is student safety. “We are supposed to evacuate students to a basement area or to the best and safest area possible. Our first priority is keeping students safe,” he said. Although University Housing does have official policies and procedures
for what to do in the event of a weather emergency, Spicer said that resident advisors are not officially trained in what to do. They have been taught the procedures but have no formal training. “Housing does have a policy for it, but RA’s are not formally trained. They informed us of what to do when the storm showed signs of getting worse,” Spicer said. Despite the lack of formal training for weather emergencies, Spicer said that he thinks the resident advisors are capable of doing a good job. “As long as housing effectively communicates with us, it’s okay,” Spicer said. In the event of adverse weather, resident advisors are instructed to lead the residents to the most secure place available in the dorm. For dorms like Turlington and Alexander, students
Tim O'Brien/Technician
While taking cover in the basement of Wolf Village building C, Chris Schaefer, junior in sports management, and Raina Enand, a Wake Forest student, toss a ball with friends while Jonathan Dodson, visiting University of Oregon student, works on a research paper Saturday. The storm took 24 lives across North Carolina and had had tornados on the ground across Wake county where is left many residence without power. "We were on the top floor and couldn't see the outdoor railing five feet away from us," Jay Jones, junior in industrial engineering.
Safe continued page 3
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