Tornado strikes Union University, trapped students rescued

Baptist Press

Union University students, faculty and staff as well as emergency crews carry out one rescued student while working their way to a number of trapped students on Feb. 5.

Photo by Morris Abernathy

Baptist Press

JACKSON, Tenn. - Union University in Jackson, Tenn., sustained heavy tornado damage Tuesday, Feb. 5 at about 7 p.m. when a line of heavy thunderstorms rushed through the area.

Fifty-one students were treated for injuries and nine were kept overnight in a local hospital.

All students have been accounted for and, while some of the injuries were serious, none were life threatening, Union President David Dockery said in a press conference early the next morning.

The men's and women's residential complexes were almost completely destroyed, and the roof was torn off a main academic building, Dockery said. He recalled a 2002 tornado that struck the campus, causing $2.6 million in damage, and said this one was "15 times worse than that."

Tim Ellsworth, the school's news and information director, said that all 12 students who had been trapped in a collapsed dorm had been freed. The last one was extricated a little after midnight and taken to an area hospital; doctors reported he would be fine.

"Many buildings sustained heavy damage," he added. "Dorms in both the men's and women's areas have been destroyed."

He reported the roof on Jennings Hall was nearly completely gone.

"It's a miracle of the Lord more people weren't injured," Union professor Michael Chute said. "The damage to the residence halls looks as bad as the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City when it was bombed. Walls were just ripped off."

As many as 3,300 students had been on campus earlier in the day before classes dismissed, Chute said.

After the storm, faculty and staff met students at a shopping center across from the campus to register them as safe and match them with volunteers in the community who were willing to take them in, Chute said. Local churches mobilized buses to take students to host homes.

Classes initially were cancelled for the remainder of the week, but university officials later announced that they will not resume before Feb. 18.