The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Issue date: 5/11/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Rachel Dembrun Hundreds of students, parents and Fort Collins community members file into the Lory Student Center after being alerted of a tornado warning around 2:30 p.m. on Monday afternoon.

A tornado warning was issued for the CSU campus and surroundings areas Monday afternoon. CSUPD sent out an emergency text message alert at 2:29 p.m. telling students to take shelter in a lower level or basement.

Hundreds of people were forced inside the basement of the Lory Student Center. The warning expired at 2:42 p.m. and LSC officials informed people that they were allowed to go outside again.

Most of the crowd in the LSC was at CSU for Freshmen Preview. Another group was on campus for the College Board AP Reading Conference.

People were text messaging and calling friends and family asking if they knew what was going on. Others watched the heavy downpour of rain as they waited to hear any news of a tornado.

"This is exciting. I've never seen anything like this before," said Chet Defonso, a professor at Northern Michigan University, as he watched the rain through a window.

"We were finishing up our team cheer, doing icebreakers and about to go out on tour (when we had to come inside)," said Daniel Kim, a team leader for Freshmen Preview.

Editor-in-chief Virginia Singarayar can be reached at editor@collegian.com.