Today marks the 1 year anniversary of the tornado that came through our campus. It is amazing to see what God has done over the past year. I cannot thank Him enough for the protection He gave every student that night. To mark the anniversary, I thought I would post my story. This is something I wrote 2 days after the tornado... so here is my story:
It all started about 30 minutes before the storm. I was prepared to go to the commons to ride out the storm. I went there to ask Joe Ball, my roommate, to see if that was a good idea. He told me to go to the room below ours and ride it out there. So I went back to my room and met another roommate, Kyle Odom there. We went downstairs when the sirens went off. Jason Evans, a friend back at home, kept texting me keeping me updated. At first I thought he was joking because the storm had been moving directly north. I did not see how the storm would turn that sharply. But I could tell that he was serious and we eventually headed to the bathroom. There were 9 of us in the bathroom. Not long after we got the door shut, we heard the tornado, our ears popped, and it was over. I remember asking Kyle, “Everything is gone isn’t it?” He just replied “Yes, I think so.” I called my mom and let her know that I was ok. Then we went into survival mode and tried to find a place of safety.
So we headed out to another building, not really sure where the best place was. We had no idea what buildings were and weren’t damaged. I saw a lot of people heading toward the PAC, so that is where we went. Once we got inside, we saw Kyle’s girlfriend Brooke, and her roommate Abigail. Eventually a bunch of others found us, including Matt Turner, another of my roommates, and Paul Morris. We all banded together and stood by each other’s side through the night. It was a miracle when my Dad called me in the PAC. That building does not allow any cell phone services to have signal. So it was a miracle that we got service. I talked to him for a few minutes, and then our group headed to an interior classroom (the Map Room). We worked together getting desks moved to smaller rooms leaving the bigger rooms for us to take refuge in. We stayed there for quite a while and received word that faculty and staff would take us to their homes. So we headed for the chapel to get picked up.
But the sirens began again and we had to go back to a classroom. We stayed there maybe another hour. I remember that somewhere between 8:30 and 9:00 we were all in the hall, now just seven of us, trying to find somewhere else to go. Our group included Joe Ball, Matt Turner, Kyle Odom, Paul Morris, Michael Grubb, Amanda (she was with Michael), and myself. Joe was trying to find us a place to go but could not get his cell phone to work. We were told to go to the guard station, but when we got there the police did not know we were coming. So we were clueless at that point. They were trying to get buses for us, but had no such luck at the time. Probably 200 students were standing in the grass lot by the guard station with no place to go. Michael began making calls, and he contacted Opie from Calvary Baptist Church. We were still pretty shook up at this point. We had no place to go and it was raining. What really got us was when the wind started blowing really hard again. We knew we could not wait on buses to get campus. Michael said Opie was on his way, so we just started running. We headed to Stein Mart, where Opie was going to meet us.
We ran down Walker Road, in the rain, and met some policemen on the way who led us to a red tent in front of Stein Mart and Petco. We had to check in there for the third time. Then we ran to the bus trying not to fall as we ran through the big puddles. Once we got on the bus, Opie headed back to Union to see if we could get any other students to go with us. No one else was at that grassy lot, so we turned around and went back to Stein Mart. They would not let us take any other students, so we headed to Calvary Baptist.
We arrived at Calvary at about 10:00. We went over each other’s stories and tried to figure out what exactly happened at what time. I called many people and many others called me. Around midnight, all the storms were gone and we could feel the temperatures dropping. We all realized that no more storms were coming and rejoiced because of the cool weather. About 2:30 I may have finally fallen asleep. I woke up shortly after 7:00, and Opie started trying to find us some food. All I had had since 5:00 the previous night was half a coke. But it has been hard to eat since then. We got a little to eat that morning, and then my parents arrived.
12 hours after the tornado hit, I was up and ready to go. So everyone knows the story after this. They would not let us on campus due to FEMA and other reasons. They are helping us take care of our cars and possessions. The important thing is that we are all alive. Out of around 1200 students who were on campus, only 51 were injured. Now only 2 are at the hospitable expecting to make it. And the biggest miracle of all is that no one was killed. God was in control Tuesday night! He watched over us and gave us the peace to get us through the whole thing. Something I have since realized is this: We have always joked about living in the “Union Bubble.” But now, God gave us the REAL Union Bubble. Maybe our possessions were destroyed, but our lives were saved. We were protected by God’s Union Bubble. Praise God!
We were clueless about what would happen next at this point. Remember, I wrote the above 2 days after the storm. But in the weeks that followed, Union began developing an accelerated class schedule that allowed us to finish the semester on time. They also designed new dorms, and began construction. Today, all 15 new dorms are up and in use. The commons, which will complete the new quads, is under construction as well. Union is back. It may look a lot different, but we are back and still serving God.
One more amazing part of this story is the fact that I was in the process of applying for Centrifuge (the support staff here at Union). The tornado cancelled the Union Centrifuge last summer, leaving me out of a job. But I got a call from Mrs. Leatha to work at Christian Wee Learn a few weeks after the storm. If it had not been for the tornado, I may not have had the opportunity to work with those kids last summer. And I would have missed out on a lot.
I do not know why we had to go through the storm. And it is sometimes easy to question things in life. But nothing but positives have come out of this last year. People have come to know Christ, His message has been proclaimed, we have seen His work through our rebuilding, and we have seen His protection of His children. In some ways I wish it had never happened and we could go back to the way life once was. But in so many other ways I would not trade anything for what God has taught me over this last year. Today is a day of celebration for the protection God gave us last year. Tonight we are having times of celebration on and off campus, praising God for all that He has done.
Matt
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