by Bret Jourden

The tornado warning went off in Ridgecrest South and my girlfriend and I went downstairs to the main floor with the rest of the residents. We looked for a clear area to sit down and plug in our laptops to get some homework done (we thought this was just a typical thunderstorm like the one we had the previous week.)

I look up from my laptop to see two girls run past us. I told my friend Niklas Fahl to come with me outside to see how bad the storm actually was. We looked out of one of the emergency exit doors only to duck due to reflexes from the shaking thunder.

Niklas, who has a fourth floor room with a window looking out towards the stadium, told me we would have a better look from up there. I followed hurriedly up the flights of stairs to his room to see massive black and silver clouds in the distance over campus drive. I took my iPhone out and immediately started filming.

Looking at the clouds, one of the students who had followed us up exclaimed that the tornado was taking shape. Within minutes, the tornado was on the ground and heading towards Bryant-Denny stadium. From my angle, I captured the moment where the funnel hit the stadium and expanded over it, sending a cloud of black debris into the swirl of blue lighting and silver-white clouds. I was in awe at what it was doing and how fast it was doing it.

At that moment, I knew we were in immediate danger, but I stayed a bit longer to witness the path of the monster that was birthed from the sky. Soon enough, as I kept recording, the tornado took a turn as if it were to strike Ridgecrest South, and fast. We ran down the stairs in a hurry, cringing, just waiting and thinking any moment now it will crash into the building. When we got downstairs we heard over the intercom that a tornado was heading for UA. The rest of the students rushed to a window, only to be ushered back by resident advisors.

I relaxed a bit after hearing that it had veered off its course. I wish I could say it was an act of God that took the tornado off its course towards us, but with so many lives taken that day, I know that it was no justice to anyone. Almost like being at the jaws of a fairy-tale beast, I wish to never have to be that close again.

The victims and their families are in my heart.

Bret Jourden is a freshman majoring in English.