Tornado warning evacuates classes

As tornado sirens wailed and loud thunder clapped, students quickly found themselves running to the nearest campus basements. Jessica Chumbley, building operations assistant manager for SMU, alerted students and staff in the Hughes-Trigg Student Center to take cover.

At approximately 7 p.m., SMU Police Department staff put employees on notice to get the campus ready for tornado warning sirens. The sirens sounded at 7:15 p.m.

“Ray Alverez, who is my boss, told me to get all students to the basement pre-function area until further notice,” Chumbley said. “This is the safest place for everyone during a tornado if you are near or in Hughes-Trigg.”

Senior David Church was studying at Fondren Library when the SMU PD ran in and notified students to take cover.

“We could not hear any warning sirens inside the library,” Church said. “After the SMU PD officer came in, two P.A. announcements were made over the loud speaker and told all people to move to the library basement.”

Tate Lecture speakers Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the two Washington Post reporters who took Watergate to the front page of America’s newspapers, were evacuated as they began eating their filet mignon in the Umphrey Lee Ballroom. They were attending the Tate Lecture Series dinner held in their honor with school officials and city VIPs.

“President Turner interrupted our dinner with good reason,” said Feras Gadamsi, editor in chief of The Daily Campus. “He informed us that sirens had gone off and to get to the basement in Umphrey Lee immediately.”

All guests returned to finish their meals and desserts after a brief stay in the basement.

Heather Purse, executive vice president of the Student Foundation, said due to the inclement weather, the doors to the lecture opened early to allow guests to get out of the wind and rain.

“Lecture attendees were not being seated in the first and second balconies of the McFarlin Auditorium due to safety concerns by school officials,” Purse said. “Lecture guests were only allowed to be seated on ground level.”

The sirens that were heard all over campus came from the Highland Park Police and Fire Department.

Officer Ferguson, Dispatcher for the Highland Park Fire and Rescue said that the warning sirens have not been sounded to alert citizens of an impending tornado in over five years.

“The system worked fine. Our residents of Highland Park and University Park were given plenty of advance notice of the funnel clouds in the area,” Ferguson said. “Our warning system is 18 years old and it still works just fine.”

Several Highland Park and University Park residents came to campus basements because homes in the area do not have basements.

Todd and Laurie Martin and their 11-month-old son Luke sought out shelter at SMU. They are both SMU Law School Alumni class of ’97.

“We live on Hanover Street and I was driving home on the Tollway and it looked real scary,” Laurie said. “I ran in the house and grabbed the baby and Todd and we sped over to the basement of Hughes-Trigg.”

Laurie grew up in Canyon, Texas and said she takes warning sirens seriously even though she has been in many similar situations.

SMU police alerted fraternity and sorority rows to the situation.

Pi Kappa Alpha member Sam O’Malley heard the sirens and the officers’ pleas to get cover.

“The cops drove by and told all of us to go inside immediately,” O’Malley said. “It was too exciting outside, only a couple of guys actually went in.”

Tornado warning evacuates classes