Amid the sound and fury of Saturday’s storms, one voice was conspicuously silent. Despite sheets of rain, hail and a family of destructive tornadoes, the DukeALERT system neglected both to inform students of the weather system’s status and to prepare them for its arrival.
This was not for lack of gravity—this storm was serious business. An estimated eight tornadoes tore through North Carolina Saturday, killing at least 23 people, destroying homes and depriving broad swathes of the region of power. The storm killed at least three people in Wake County, which shares a border with Durham County.
We can’t blame DukeALERT’s silence on the suddenness of the storm either. The storm system that spawned the tornadoes started in Oklahoma Thursday night before predictably careening into North Carolina two days later.
This lapse in communication is unacceptable and demands a revision of the criteria for issuing a DukeALERT for severe weather.
Whether or not students are in real physical danger is beside the point. Students deserve to be made aware of severe weather activity. This is all the more important when the campus is buffeted by wind, rain and talk of tornadoes. DukeALERT could allay much of the student anxiety generated by imminent severe weather by updating students on the status of the weather and, more importantly, by letting students know what to do if the worst does happen.
Updating students on safety protocol is especially important. Many Duke students come from the east and west coasts of the United States, areas with historically low tornado frequency. Letting these students know what to do does more than ensure that they are safe if a tornado occurs—it sets at ease student anxieties about not knowing what to do in case of severe weather.
Saturday had all the right ingredients for high anxiety. The normally footsure Duke wireless network faltered Saturday morning and worked sporadically until around 2 p.m. This substantially limited students’ ability to stay up to date on the weather. Communication through DukeALERT’s text messaging network could have filled this information gap.
Many students stayed abreast of the weather by checking local news channels. But these news channels will become much harder to access next year, when cable service in dorm rooms is discontinued. If cable is going to be eliminated, the criteria for sending DukeALERT messages will need to expand to make up for lost information.
This expansion is well within DukeALERT’s reach. The program currently controls an elaborate communications infrastructure that includes email and text-message notifications, along with a deafeningly loud outdoor warning system. DukeALERT, along with the occasional email from Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta, generally keeps students well informed about crime on or near campus and severe weather.
But severe weather must encompass more than impending snow and ice storms. When tornadoes run amok in neighboring counties, students need to be updated, even when tornadoes are not touching down on Duke’s campus.
The University should reach out to students affected by the disaster. In the meantime, DukeALERT needs to update its alert criteria for severe weather. Student safety is at stake, but so is student peace of mind.
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