Weathering the Storm

The smell of sulphur was thick across IU Wednesday afternoon. Flares lined the streets, marking the boundaries between oncoming traffic and raging rain water. Power lines snaked on the ground. Trees knocked holes in roofs and crushed cars. \nStudents hustled inside, following a warning issued by the National Weather Service at 5:14 p.m. that a tornado was headed for Bloomington. \nDoppler radar detected a possible tornado near Martinsville, just north of Bloomington, and another one near Bedford, just south of Bloomington.\nPower was out across much of the city as students studied by candlelight, played Monopoly with flashlights and peered out their windows. The storm closed some campus food courts and knocked out power to the Buskirk-Chumley Theatre, the site of Wednesday's Big Man On Campus competition.\nSome classes were let out early Wednesday afternoon. But the weather did not deter many students from daily activities.\nFor sophomore Michele Skurnik, the storm hit too close to home. Her 2000 Jeep Cherokee Laredo was crushed by the tree that used to stand outside her apartment.Skurnik stood on her front porch, surveying the damage as she and her roommates called friends and family on cell phones. \nThe police canvassed the area, talking to neighbors who saw the tree fall.\n"I was inside the house when it happened," Skurnik said. "I didn't know the tree had fallen."\nAcross Bloomington, tornado sirens blared.\nWater reached knee level on Bloomington firefighters' boots at the north corner of 10th and Dunn Streets at about 6:30 p.m. Earlier in the evening, a car was trapped when it stalled in the water, said Bloomington Fire Department Capt. Robert Harris.\nConditions were not good in Bloomington as police officers and firefighters worked to clean up flooded streets and downed power lines, Harris said.\nStudents and employees already in some of the dining halls were escorted to safer locations within the buildings.\nFreshman Brent Bockelman was in the Wright Place Food Court when management officials were forced to evacuate the area.\n"They told us, 'You guys are going to have to go downstairs,'" Bockelman said.\nResidents and workers huddled in the Wright lobby, keeping away from windows and doors.\n"When the alarms sound downtown in a tornado warning, that's our cue that we have to shut down," said Residential Programs and Services Assistant Manager Jerry Russell. "It looks like it is pretty bad, they are saying that it could be a pretty strong storm."\nDuring the tornado threat, Johnson said the food courts should have been left open to allow students to study and eat.\n"I think they should leave the food courts open for people if they want to study," he said. "Some people might not want to leave because of the weather and it's kind of sad when you can't even eat."\nBut sophomore Laura Burtner said the University did the right thing in trying to protect students and faculty.\n"If they think it could endanger the lives of people, they should shut down things," Burtner said.\nWhile the food courts were shut down, the weather didn't cause any changes in the screening of "K-Pax" at the Indiana Memorial Union.\n"If we cancel, we can't re-schedule it since it opens this weekend," said Union Board Films Director Erik Gibson, a senior. "We don't like canceling anyway; we will just see who shows up."\nBut Gibson said the weather had an effect on the turnout for the show.\n"It is probably a little less than we were probably expecting," he said.\nFeatures Editor Rachel Kipp and staff reporters Gavin Lesnick and Colin Nowling contributed to this story.