OU students know the steps to take when dealing with tornado safety.

Resident advisers are aware of shelter locations in each building, and tornado guidelines are posted on the inside of each dorm resident's room door, said Amy Holt, director of Residence Life.

"We are very adamant about providing safety for our students," Holt said. "With the new tornado sirens up, it will only enhance the awareness in residence halls."

History senior Will Rye, a Walker Center resident adviser, said hearing the siren warnings and taking shelter in the basement are the key points to remember in a severe storm situation.

A stormy weather pattern will soon develop in the area with upper-level storm systems affecting Oklahoma every three or four days, meteorology professor Kelvin Droegemeier said.

"This is characteristic for this time of year, and it's not out of the question to have severe thunderstorms and tornadoes in February," said Droegemeier, the director of the Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms.

International business junior Pace McCaskill said that during the tornado on May 3, 1999, the RAs knocked on all the dorm doors telling the students to go to the basement.

"With the university, it's more of a reactionary process," McCaskill said.

The OU Police Department produces a tornado safety brochure every March that focuses on specific tornado safety information for the university, said Joe Lester, director of Public Safety.

"Basically people need to always review tornado safety procedures," Lester said.

Large buildings such as Lloyd Noble Center or Couch Cafeteria should be evacuated in a tornado, he said. These brochures dictate tornado safety guidelines and are distributed all over campus.

UOSA President Chris Kannady said the university does not have a practiced policy for tornadoes. He said students might not have been told exactly what to do in the instance of a tornado.

"Students are knowledgeable though," Kannady said. "They would know how to react."

History education senior Sarah Willis said during the May 3 tornado she and her friends went to the bottom floor of her sorority house with cookies to hold them over.

"If there was another tornado, first there would probably be panic on campus," Sarah said. "But then, everyone would go into the buildings and take shelter there."

University College freshman Ryan Willis said students would know how to react in tornado weather.

"We're not 5-year-olds running around like chickens with their heads cut off," Willis said. "I think people would know how to just get to the lowest possible part of a building."

Accounting sophomore Philip Silkey said most Oklahomans would react appropriately in a tornado situation.

"A tornado would definitely be a new experience for others who are from out-of-state," Silkey said.

Geology sophomore Katie Gardner said she has lived in Oklahoma her entire life.

"I'm pretty callused to tornadoes," Gardner said.


For more information, go to www.spc.ncep.noaa.gov/faq/tornado.
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