Scrunched down on her knees, her head tucked down, 8-year-old Audrey Sica was among the 360 Wrightsville Beach School students participating in a statewide tornado drill on Wednesday morning. During the tornado drill, the students calmly moved from their classrooms to the hallway, where they took cover up against the wall, the safest place in the building in the event of a tornado.
“Sometimes people say ‘what’s the big deal, it’s just a tornado drill,’” said Sica, who added that the drill wasn’t scary for her or her classmates. “But if it was actually real, this is a big deal.”
The drill was part of a statewide tornado drill conducted Wednesday, March 9, across North Carolina by the National Weather Service.
Schools are equipped with a weather radio that will sound an alert and give teachers and administrators enough time to get the students into a safe position in the event of a tornado, said Wrightsville Beach School principal Jackson Norvell. It took about a minute to get students from the classrooms to the wall where they could take cover. The school also has nine portable classrooms behind the school, where it took about three minutes to get those students into place in the school’s cafeteria.
“Our goal is to create in the students respect for a real event,” Norvell said. “We’re always trying to instill that sense of importance and respect.”
The drill is one of four regular disaster exercises that students prepare for, said kindergarten teacher Kim Guthrie, including fire drills, earthquake drills and lockdown drills to protect against an unauthorized intruder. Regardless of the emergency, the drills help train the students to be ready in the case of any event.
“I believe the drills are very effective,” Guthrie said. “Families appreciate knowing that their children are safe at school. It’s another practice opportunity so that we can prepare for any possibility.”
For Sica, she said she’s prepared at home for a tornado, too. Her family has a room under the stairs where they can seek shelter from a violent storm.
“I would feel very safe there,” she said.
A spokeswoman for the New Hanover County school system said all students participated in the tornado drill. County employees also drilled on how to take cover in the event of a tornado.
Steven Pfaff, the National Weather Service Wilmington warning coordination meteorologist, said the drills are helpful in raising awareness of weather safety across the community, which is the goal of this week’s severe weather awareness campaign.
“The kids will say what they did in school today and it can get the discussion going on weather safety,” Pfaff said. “We’re heading into severe weather season; we need to be on our toes.”
The school’s weather alert radio will respond if the school is in an area where a tornado warning has been issued, but the alert system will also send warnings to mobile phones, providing a redundant warning. School officials can also initiate the tornado drill if they see a funnel cloud or believe a tornado is imminent.
While the statewide drill is observed by state agencies, Pfaff said it is important for businesses to participate as well, as North Carolina can be prone to tornado strikes. In one example, he said a Lowe’s Home Improvement store in Sanford initiated its tornado drill procedures before the store was hit by a tornado in April 2011, preventing any loss of life.
“For families, agencies and businesses, the only way we’re going to be weather ready is by planning for emergencies and being ready to act on those plans,” Pfaff said.
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