Marcus Smith
Lantern Staff
When there is a tornado or a bad weather emergency, living on Butler’s campus have options as to where to go to stay safe.A tornado shelter is located in the East and West dorms, whereas those living in either Cummins and the Apartments have to go to either shelter in the dorms or another storm shelter on campus. Storm shelters can be found on a campus map as well.
“[If there was a tornado, we would have to get to]… the lowest level possible,” Chief of Police Jason Kenney said. “For dorm residents, we recommend following our direction and making their way to the basement of the Welcome Center. For earthquakes, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recommends ‘Drop, Cover and Hold On!’”
With tornado season right around the corner, it is important to know the safe places on campus to go when there is a tornado.
Even though there are storm shelters on campus, many students do not know where they are. Freshman Jaedn Cooper says she would feel safe during a tornado, but she would not know where to go on campus.
“I feel like I would be as safe during a tornado as anyone can feel,” Cooper said. “Growing up in Kansas, you learn the basics of tornado safety pretty young.”
Kansas has had some very bad tornadoes in the past. One of the more recent ones includes the Greensburg tornado on May 4, 2007, which wiped out 95 percent of the town. Kansas has had many tornadoes in the past that have destroyed people’s houses and business.
“Out of every 1,000 tornadoes roughly 50 are F4, and two or three are F5s,” President of Weather Data, a Wichita-based subsidiary of AccuWeather, Mike Smith said.
Over the past few years, Kansas has experienced earthquakes as well. A 2.5 earthquake is usually the required strength for an earthquake to be felt. So far in 2018, there have been five 2.5 or more earthquakes. In 2017, a total of 120 earthquakes with a magnitude of 2.5 were reported, according to United States Geological Survey (USGS).
According to Officer Timothy Kamholz, the college can take over the speaker system to warn students in cases of bad weather. He also said students should follow the Emergency Action Plan in order to keep everyone safe during bad weather.
In order to keep safe during a tornado or other forms of bad weather, it is important for students to know where to go to remain safe.