“The whole sky went black.”

Tony Jones, 19, of Northville witnessed an ordinary summer day quickly turned dark on Thursday. As storm clouds loomed overhead and tornado sirens sounded, Jones found himself stranded at the Village Commons Bookstore, seeking shelter from the downpour.

Jones was hardly the only person on campus impacted by the storm. In the midst of move-in day, thousands of families scrambled to save themselves – and their possessions – from mother nature’s welcome wagon.

“The rain made it a little more interesting,” said Bob Engelhardt, 55, of Bolingbrook. “It was kind of chaotic when we were moving.”

The weather created another obstacle for residents trying to bring their belongings in from the rain.

“A lot of people became irritated and frustrated because their stuff was still outside, or that they got caught in the rain as they were coming in,” said Danyelle Amerson, a senior physical education major who was assisting students at Lincoln Hall by passing out directions to local businesses.

The sudden onslaught of inclement weather and the subsequent tornado scare had some students trying to decide what to leave behind. There were not many students abandoning their possessions in the beginning, Amerson said.

“In the beginning it didn’t really matter too much, as long as they got their electronics in they were okay; brooms, fans and stuff they left out there,” she said. “For the most part all the electronics and anything that was damageable and expensive got brought in.”

The tornado alerts resulted in two instances of students and their families being moved into the Lincoln Hall basement for a total of about thirty minutes, Amerson said.

NIU personnel were prepared for the situation, she said.

“All the CAs, NIU staff and everyone in yellow and red shirts wanted to make sure everyone got down to the basement in the safest way,” Amerson said. “All the NIU staff tried to make sure every parent and student got downstairs safely.”

Mick Blunier, 53, of Bartonville was impressed with NIU’s handling of the situation.

“I don’t think people realized what could have happened,” said Blunier, who was helping his son move in to Lincoln Hall. “My hats are off to the people in yellow shirts for their training. Whoever planned this knew what they were doing. Their training was phenomenal.”