Tornado warning alarms residents, creates apartment safety concerns

By Joanna Aguirre

For the first time this spring, Champaign tornado sirens went off – twice – alerting residents to seek shelter.

The severe weather on Tuesday was a hindrance to local property owners and many tenants who couldn’t rely on their residences for safety.

Santos Saldivar, a resident of Clark Street Apartments, said he didn’t feel safe in the confines of his apartment and decided to go to the Illini Union to seek shelter.

“My apartment building doesn’t have a basement and I live on the third floor,” Saldivar said. “A couple of my friends, who also live in the Champaign area, thought we would be better off at the Union if a tornado really did hit.”

Saldivar said that although no tornadoes hit the Champaign-Urbana area, he felt better knowing he would have been safe.

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The junior in Business also plans to do the same thing in case of another tornado warning.

Owner of the Clark Street Apartments, Ted Pfeffer, acknowledged the apartments lack a basement and proposed the safest way to protect oneself in similar circumstances.

“The best thing for a tenant to do is go into an interior hallway, closet or bathroom away from all windows. In something like Tuesday’s storms there’s no perfect place for you to be, it’s a toss up.” he said.

Pfeffer also recommended his tenants stay in their apartments during similar situations rather than traveling in dangerous conditions.

The severe thunderstorms caused flooding in many apartment buildings and underground garages. One of Campus Property Management’s apartment buildings, located on the corner of John and Locust streets, reported at least a dozen damaged vehicles due to the flooding of their parking garage.

Director of Public Relations for Campus Property Management, Michael Jay, said their maintenance staff brought in extra pumps to get rid of the excess water.

“We were ready to deal with the situation,” he said. “Champaign’s sewage can’t handle that amount of water in that short amount of time, so we expected some flooding.”

Jay also said tenants of the building were given tips in order to prevent future car damages due to flooding.

“During the spring, of course we expect heavy rainfall and we recommend that our tenants park on the street during a stormy night, just as a precaution,” he said.