GC’s response to EF-1 tornado

Paige Blakemore

Staff Writer

On the morning of March 26, an EF-1 tornado touched down in Milledgeville and the Baldwin County area, followed by a flash-flood warning.

The National Weather Service reported the tornado’s winds reached up to 100 mph while on the ground for 15 to 20 minutes.

The storm left many without power, damaged the city’s hospital and destroyed homes, including the home of GC employee Monica Jones.

Severe weather statements and flash flood warnings continued into Monday, leaving many GC students and faculty to wonder why school had not been canceled or why a cautionary email had not been sent out.

Education majors were forced to still drive to their placement teachings during the peak of the storms. Some of these placements were as far as an hour away.

“I had to wake up really early Monday morning just so I could navigate through the road closures,” said Cyndi Plemons, senior middle grades education major. “It started off fine, and then it was downpour. For the majority of my drive, I could not see the road. It was very scary.”

Plemons, who lives close to where the tornado touched down and did not receive power until late Sunday evening, made sure to apologize to her students for her anxious state.

Numerous professors canceled classes on their own accord for the safety of themselves and their students. Some students did not attend class out of concern for their safety.

“I wish [GC] would have sent out more precautions and updates,” Plemons said. “We didn’t get an update until 9:00 AM that morning after the storm had already passed.”

Freshman residence halls were flooded, as were many students’ homes.

See TORNADO| Page 6 sus on what constitutes a mass shooting; different groups define it differently, depending on circumstances including the number of victims, whether the victims are killed or wounded, and whether the shooting occurs in a public place,” the article said. “The Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research group that tracks gun violence using police reports, news coverage and other public sources, defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people were killed or injured.”

Gun control is a topic of great controversy in

American politics. The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution protects an American citizen’s right to bear and own arms from government interference. However, guns today are incredibly different than they were in 1791, when the Second Amendment was ratified. They have increased in efficiency and violence, and many feel that the average U.S. citizen should not have access to assault weapons.

See NASHVILLE | Page 2