Severe weather across the state of Arkansas brought heavy rain, hail and tornadoes to Faulkner County Monday, April 11.

Many homes and establishments around Conway were impacted by the storm, UCA being one of them.

UCA students were alerted on Monday through the Safe@UCA app and text messages that severe weather was approaching campus as high-speed wind, rain and hail storms began to hit. Four possible tornadoes also touched down, according to weather and emergency officials.

One of Conway’s emergency sirens — located at Fire Station #5 on Wescon Lane — which alerts residents about incoming threats such as tornadoes, was not working at the time.

Students living in residencel halls on campus took shelter in their halls’ lobbies and basements.

Shortly after 7:00 PM, the electricity went out.

When the storm started, freshman Isabelle Saettle knew immediately that it was safest to leave her room and go to lower ground.

“I’m on the second floor right by the roof of the lobby of Short-Denney, so when the hail was coming down it was super loud hitting the roof. The hail freaked me out because it was so loud,” Seattle said, “Once the lights went out my roommate and I went to the basement to hide in the laundry room. After a while, we decided to go to the lobby because we wanted to be around other people where it was safe.”

As everyone gathered together in their safe spots, many students spent the next few hours playing card games and talking in the dark while some kept tabs on weather alerts.

Sophomore Michael Moreton took shelter in a first-floor hallway of Farris Hall during the storm.

“It was pretty crowded and the power was out so it started to get stuffy quickly,” Moreton said. “There were people that were keeping tabs on the tornadoes the entire time, so I felt safer because of them.”

The next morning, Moreton was surprised to find that their car had flooded due to the rain.

“I didn’t notice that my car and the ones next to it all had a line of mud about a foot off the ground around them. I opened the door and immediately saw some water, so I checked the rest of my car and saw that my entire floor was a big puddle,” Moreton said. The car did not receive any damage from the hail.

Because of the amount of heavy rain, many buildings around campus were flooded.

Bernard Hall, Mcclastlin Hall, Wingo Hall and Burdick Hall all flooded.

The parking lots of State Hall and New Hall and the parking lot west of the Farris Center and south of Stadium Park flooded as well.

“Those last two are always prone to floods and signage has been in place for a long time there,”  Sergeant Michael Hopper of UCAPD said. 

The storm also led to an unexpected failure in the data closet of Snow Fine Arts and a window blowing open in the Student Health Center which caused some damage, President Houston Davis said at a faculty-senate meeting Tuesday morning. 

No injuries have been reported from the storm.

Those on campus, if caught in a storm, can go to the storm shelters. Storm shelters are located in Bear Village apartments, the basement of Burdick Hall, the basement of Lewis Science Center and the basement of Old Main. In Residential Halls, they are in the basement or lobby.

To stay informed about severe weather, Sergeant Michael Hopper encourages everyone to download the Safe@UCA app.

“We use the app as a way to push notifications out to the community via the news feed. It is also useful to make contact with the police department directly, and it provides a list of emergency contact numbers for other entities in Faulkner County,” Hopper said. “You do not have to be on campus for the app to be a useful tool.”

Safe@UCA provides timely warnings in case of an emergency as well as other useful features such as Mobile Bluelight, a function where you can send your location information to UCA security in cases of crisis and Friend Walk, a similar function where you can send your location to a friend. 

“Download today and ensure that you’re prepared in the event of an emergency.” A quote from the UCAPD website reads.

Safe@UCA also includes emergency contacts, tip reporting, safety notifications and emergency plans. Users can also chat with safety staff at UCA through the app and access campus safety resources.