Tornado warning shuts down food service

Everything is back as it should be in campus dining facilities, three days after the food courts shut down during Friday's tornado.\nThe first time the sirens sounded, the managing staff at Foster Quad stuck their heads outside and did not see any potential threat and kept serving the students. But after the second siren went off, they received a call from Residential Programs and Services to shut their doors.\n"It's a policy for the safety of our employees and customers," said senior assistant manager Marianne Van Acker at Foster Quad.\nAfter the doors were shut at Foster, students and employees were told about the storm warning and offered a place of shelter in the basement of the building. \nThe same was true at Wright Quad. After the first siren sounded the turnstiles were closed. Again, following the second siren, students and employees were informed of the situation and told to take shelter downstairs, said student supervisor Kris Gray.\n"It's like an insurance policy especially in the dining room with all the windows," Gray said.\nSome students trying to eat lunch and move on with their day found this policy somewhat extreme. Sophomore Lindsay Call said while she was eating with her friends at the Wright food court the gates were suddenly closed.\n"We were not told a reason," Call said. "A girl who was sitting at the table next to ours told us that there was a tornado warning."\nFreshman Erin Lally said she went into the food court and came out with nothing. \n"We were told we needed to go downstairs because there was a tornado warning," Lally said.\nLally said the situation was somewhat disorganized and said she thought there could have been a better way to handle the situation.\nFreshman Matthew Garritano was on his way to McDonald's in Read Center when he was quickly pulled into a hallway where many other students were already seated in the "tornado position." \n"No one was allowed to leave the building; I tried several times but didn't make it," said Garritano. \nThe National Weather Service and the Red Cross reminds everyone that if a tornado warning is issued they are urged to head to a sturdy building, stay on the lowest possible level and protect themselves from possible flying objects and glass. The best protection while outside is to lie flat in a ditch or a low-lying area.