Giant pools of chocolaty water reflected the threatening northern sky.

That’s the only view Northern View Community residents got as they were being relocated from their homes. The Northern View Community parking lot was calm, save a few construction trucks and NIU relocation buses.

During the downpour Friday night, NIU’s retention pond, which is northwest of NIU’s Convocation Center and a stone’s throw from Northern View Community, overflowed into NIU’s northwestern parking lots.

Though many cars in the NIU Convocation Center parking lot were damaged, some beyond repair, the situation could have been much worse had the rain continued late Saturday.

Despite no structural damage and no immediate danger, NIU administration decided to relocate the 60 apartment-unit renters, about 80 individuals, to NIU’s Grant North residential tower Friday morning.

“The people were very polite when they came to the door to tell us we had to leave,” said Krystal Strickland, freshman psychology major. “I was upset, though. I had been to Grant North for orientation, and I didn’t know how my two kids were going to sleep there.”

A main issue was the amount of people already moved into the community.

“Situating and moving all of them was a challenge,” said Brian Hemphill, vice-president of student affairs.

NIU provided buses to move students and families who did not use their own transportation.

A primary concern of the residents was how dorms could be modified for young children for the next few days.

Due to dry conditions, the residents were admitted back into their apartments Saturday at 10 a.m.

The grounds and apartments were still under construction at the time of the storm.

There is a gravel road to get to the brand new apartments, which opened their doors only four days before the night’s relocation.

“We’ve been working through the storms,” said John Merrit, employee of SM Wilson, the construction company working on Northern View Community. “We worked until 10 p.m. on Friday, through the storm, the tornado sirens, and we’ll work through on Saturday too, until the job is finished.”

The relocation lasted only a night, but the residents learned their safety is paramount to their convenience.