Remembering The Tornado Twelve Years Later

Twelve years ago, an EF-4 tornado struck Union University’s campus, severely damaging student housing and injuring many students who were later brought to the hospital. This past Wednesday, Feb. 5, was the anniversary of that night. 

Joe Ball, director for discipleship and ministry, was a sophomore at Union that year. The weather was warm and dry, and he was sweating as he walked to class that morning. Ball became a RA that spring semester and had only experienced his first full week when he was told to prepare for severe weather and possibly a tornado.  

Keith Bates, professor of history at Union, is from Memphis and attended grad school in Kansas, so he knows the signs for tornadoes and watches the weather carefully. He and his wife lived only two miles from the university’s campus, shorter as the crow flies. They watched the weather not only for their own safety, but also for their future daughter Rachel who they learned they were pregnant with only a few weeks prior. 

Both Ball and Bates watched the weather channel that night. As the time slowly drew closer to 7 p.m., the deep red of the storm raced up Interstate 40 straight for Jackson.  They listened as the newscaster warned everyone in north Jackson and more specifically everyone at Union University to take cover.  

Bates and his wife huddled together in a hallway closet knowing that the only thing they could do was try to protect themselves.  As an RA, however, Ball had to worry about protecting everyone else. He was in the commons building at the time and told students to go to the bathrooms on the first floor, but not many of them took the tornado warning seriously. People were laughing, and a group of boys played ping pong. 

Ball can still feel how the weather changed. In that next moment at 7:02 p.m., the tornado hit Union, and the commons building collapsed. Ball was one of the 51 students rushed to the hospital that night. Several stitches later, his finger was mended, and today he still has a scar to remember those life-changing seconds when winds ripped the university apart.  

Later that night, he was brought to Calvary Baptist Church where the family of Ansley Ross, current Union senior and psychology major, picked him up. That night, Ball realized what it meant to be without as he depended upon others for basic needs such as toiletries, food and a cellphone charger. Just like Ball, students stayed in homes all across Jackson soon to see their own families, many of which drove all night or left early that next morning to reach their children.

While Bates and his wife remained safe during the storm, it destroyed homes only .5 miles from them. He recalls the sound of the tornado unlike anything he has ever heard before. Once the danger passed, they stepped outside and spoke to a few of their neighbors. Then his phone rang. 

The previous semester, Bates and his wife chose to invest in two Union freshmen girls as their watchcare daughters, Elizabeth Wood and Mallory Carter. He answered the phone to hear Wood tell him how her dorm had collapsed. He immediately left to pick up her and a few friends. Later, he received a call from Carter and headed back to Union for another group of girls. Bates and his wife sat up with those eight or nine girls that night as they shared their stories.  

“Continuing to talk about these stories is important. Moments like this are key elements of who we are,” Bates said. “If they’re part of our history, they’re also a part of our heritage, and in a sense, hopefully a part of our DNA- our identity. And it’s easy to forget that.” 

The tornado came while Wood was cooking with several friends in her dorm room.  This meant that none of them were wearing shoes when their building collapsed. Trapped in the bathroom, they waited as people came to move debris and help them out.  However, they could not escape without cutting their feet on the scattered glass and debris, so people began throwing tennis shoes at them. Students across campus wore mismatched shoes as they put on whatever was available to navigate the glass.

The next morning Bates went to pick up donuts for everyone and drove past Union on Bypass US-45.  He could not believe the destruction that he saw. He recalls that not only the dorms were destroyed, but the trees looked like the hand of God had come and torn their tops off- mere sticks in the ground.  On the news, however, students were not mourning their school, their stuff or themselves. They shared about the goodness of God as He protected and provided.  

University faculty and staff spent several hours a day during those next two weeks salvaging clothing, pictures, jewelry, books and any personal effects they could find. After washing the clothes, each student’s remaining possessions were placed in a bag with their name on it for when they arrived back on campus.

“When we all got back here, one of the things that was really interesting to talk to friends was that we were all away from Union for like two weeks, but all of us wanted to get back. I think a part of it was that we had a shared experience, so we could rely on each other,” Ball said. “But also I think Union became home for all of us.”

Churches across town set up temporary dormitories for students, and many stayed with families throughout the Jackson community. Union completed the semester without anyone losing course credit, and all seniors were able to graduate. Next fall, students moved into the brand new dorms each of which was equipped with a secured storm shelter room in the downstairs bathrooms.

Both Bates and Ball felt that the greatest thing to take away from the tornado is the manner in which the Jackson and Union community drew together. Union alumni from all over the world sent their support, and those within Jackson lent their hands to cleanup and their homes to students. Through this event, students bonded in a way that went beyond friendship. Bates noted how they experienced a truly Christ-centered community and fully understood the meaning of Union United. 

“What brought us together on that day is the same thing that brings us together today,” Ball said. “We don’t need a tornado to happen to bring us together, Christ brings us together. And I think that’s what really makes this place special.”