DeKALB | On Friday, the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office responded to 11 storm-related phone calls from the southern part of the county.

“These calls mainly consisted of trees, power lines and power poles that were down across roadways,” the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. “The hardest area hit was just north and between the villages of Waterman and Hinckley.”

Sgt. James McDougall of the DeKalb Police Department said the tornado sirens were activated between 4:30 and 5 p.m. McDougall said the sirens were used because of severe weather conditions, but no tornadoes were sighted in the DeKalb area.

In response to the sirens and rumored sightings, NIU was evacuated shortly thereafter, moving faculty and students still on campus to tornado shelters in their respective buildings.

Students in the residence halls Friday afternoon were told to go down to the basements. Douglas Hall residents had mixed reactions to the event’s procedures.

“It was funny how people were acting all crazy up here because I’m from central Illinois,” said freshman undecided major Alex Baur. “It was great because the whole outcome was just a bunch of pretty rainbows. There was all that disaster nonsense for nothing.”

Forrest Dick, freshman business administration major, agreed with Baur’s views.

“It was interesting and a tad unnecessary, because I didn’t think the weather was bad enough to need a tornado warning,” Dick said.

Nyssa Bulkes is the City Assistant Editor for the Northern Star.