Story by: JaMirah Borden
During Spring Break, students and faculty were notified that there would possibly be severe weather between Wednesday, March 30th, and early Thursday, March 31st. The National Weather Service placed the university and other surrounding areas in the moderate risk category, a level 4 or 5 for severe weather.
Everyone was encouraged to monitor the news and the weather and utilize UMAlert and the university’s social media pages for updates. Later that evening, Shelby County was placed under a tornado watch until 1 a.m on March 31.
According to WVTM13, a tornado warning was issued from 10:23 p.m. by the National Weather Service until 10:45 p.m. There was a tornado above Montevallo six minutes later. It was said to be moving northeast at 45 mph.
The tornado warning expired at 10:45 p.m., but a severe thunderstorm near Alabaster moved towards the Montevallo area. By 10:55 p.m., there had been reports of structural damage on Montevallo’s campus.
An all-girl four-story dormitory, Brooke Hall suffered structural damage to the roof.
After the storm passed, other visible damage had been made on campus as well. Trees were uprooted, damage near the track and field, and some other damage to two other buildings on campus.
Since this tornado happened during Spring Break, there weren’t many students on campus. The few that were either stayed in their dorms or went to the storm shelter.
Anna Brasfield, an RA in Brooke Hall, was still on campus during the time of the storms. She says she was scared, just like some of the others.
I was on the top floor when the sirens went off, and I headed down to the lobby where a couple of other residents were. We all sat in the hallway by the elevator because that’s where there are no windows. It was all deafening. I heard a lot of screaming, and people were running inside because trees were falling and being thrown around, and I think it all happened so fast that there wasn’t enough time to get to the storm shelter. I’m a pretty calm person, but I was still pretty shaken up from it just because it was so loud it sounded like a train going right by. We sat there for a while after it passed because we were all scared. Then James Spann reported damage to the top of Brooke, and I think that’s when my anxiety really went up because I didn’t know what kind of damage had happened…
Anna Brasfield
Students either stayed inside the dorms, or made their way to the shelter before the storm became worse. Around 11 p.m., the tornado had passed, and it only rained. Many people were still shaken up by the outcome of the storm and the damage it had done.
Sophomore Math major, Maddie P. was at the storm shelter during the storm with some others. Afterwards, she went back to her room still shaken up.
When I got to the shelter, people were still standing outside until we got the message alert saying we were under a tornado warning. About 5 minutes later, everything got quiet, and then I heard a loud sound like a train was above us. There were trees knocked over, the roof of Brooke Hall was broken, and parts of other buildings were all over the place. The first thing I did was called my family to let them know I was okay, and then I texted my friends to let them know I was okay.
Maddie P.
The university issued statements close to midnight saying that university officials and the police department would look for damages the following day.
According to ABC 33/40, one person suffered a minor injury, but they weren’t named. Over the next few days, the university is set to prepare for students’ arrival from Spring Break and finish up the Spring semester.
Vallo Vision News 