Some students now question Ohio University's emergency text messaging system after waiting more than an hour to receive a warning about the confirmed tornado Thursday evening.
Emergency sirens and an automated voice blared across campus as soon as word of the storm arrived, and OU's emergency web page was updated continuously throughout the evening. However, students did not receive the emergency text message until after the tornado touched down and the tornado warning was almost over.
Students reported receiving the text message at various times ranging from 8:15 p.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday. The message read, OU Athens Campus is under a tornado warning until 8:30 p.m. on Sept 16. For more info go to www.ohio.edu/emergency.
Michael Tedesco, a sophomore studying media arts and visual communications, heard the sirens before 7 p.m. and knew to take shelter but did not receive the text message until 9:48 p.m. He said although the sirens' warning was timely, the automated voice specifying the tornado warning could not be heard clearly everywhere on campus.
I was covered because I was on campus and heard those (alarm) notifications
but I know there were people on parts of campus who couldn't hear them; I think the whole point of the text messaging was that Tedesco said.
The tornado warning, which was lifted at 8:30 p.m. Thursday, was originally set to lift at 7:15 p.m., and again at 7:45 p.m. University officials chose not to send the text immediately because the system takes time to process and send a message to thousands of phones, said Dean of Students Ryan Lombardi.
Officials said the text message was just one way OU warned students.
... We cannot and do not rely on text messages alone as many people are not signed up to receive them
Renea Morris, executive director of University Communications and Marketing, said in a statement. ... texts normally supplement the many other ways we communicate emergency information ... A text message was sent after the third extension of the tornado warning as a supplementary way to let students know about the extension.
OU's official Twitter page, which has 8,427 followers as of yesterday, announced the tornado warning at 7:12 p.m. Thursday.
OU's official Facebook page, which has 20,241 fans as of yesterday, didn't post an update on the storm until about 10 a.m. Friday morning.
The emergency page was updated immediately
as soon as we had any information
said Gabrielle Johnston, an editorial assistant in University Communications and Marketing.
The university's emergency telephone line, which offers a recording with information about urgent situations, was updated along with the website, Johnston said.
Despite the success of the other forms of communication, Tedesco said he still would have liked to see a text message on time.
The emergency crews
everybody did an amazing job (during the storm); the only failure was the text messaging
Tedesco said. It seems like if you were on your way to a building and there's a shooting
you'd want to get a text telling you not to go there. If you received the text message three hours later
you'd be dead.
