It may seem like a nuisance, but tornado warnings are meant to be anything but annoying. While students may be accustomed to wintertime classes being canceled for snow days, this semester they’ve been waiting out tornado warnings in basements across Lipscomb University’s campus.
It may seem overdone and unnecessary, but the Lipscomb Crisis Center takes every threat very seriously.
“We try and really monitor tornado activity,” said Kathy Hargis, the director of risk management. “We have several people who keep up with that so that we can give everybody an advance warning, specifically through LU alert.”
While some students may find the alerts excessive, the crisis team tries their best to keep the campus informed.
Hargis says when the Crisis Center sends out an LU alert there should be an action on the other end that ultimately keeps the person out of harm’s way.
And it is especially important as Nashville enters into what has typically been the most intense part of the tornado season.
Every spring, cities in the South and throughout the Midwest are wiped out by tornados. Last year, storms ripped through Alabama and southern Tennessee. Also, who can forget the powerful tornado that virtually wiped Joplin, Mo. off the map.
While the storms themselves are somewhat predictable, tornados can pop up within a moment’s notice, not giving people in the area time to take cover.
“There have been a lot of schools in the South that have had [tornados] hit their campus,” Hargis said. “So we really feel this type of thing will save lives if they take it [seriously],” said Hargis.
It may seem ridiculous to sit in a basement at 2 a.m., but in the end it’s better to spend 15 minutes of your time in safety, rather than risk ignoring the danger, Hargis says.
While some may think the Crisis Center seems to overreact, their team closely monitors every storm and tries to ignore the little things until it’s absolutely necessary to inform the Lipscomb community.
“Hopefully the benefit of it far out ways the inconvenience of having to go to the basement,” said Hargis.
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