In weather, there are always events that stand out and affect us in ways others may not understand. Three that stand out in my mind are April 27, 2011; April 28, 2014; and March 19, 2018. As the dates of each draw near, I want to focus on the latter two, the two that personally affected me. I will do so near the dates of each.

The first to be focused on is March 19, 2018. It was the Monday of Spring Break, Things had been normal most of the day, but meteorologists were calling for severe weather in the late afternoon and early evening. Parts of Alabama were in an enhanced risk of severe weather.

As storms started firing up, I was back home in Blount County with my grandmother, watching James Spann and the ABC 33/40 weather team. I also had the radar pulled up on my laptop to keep my grandmother informed.

That night, something no one expected to happen while we were all away on Spring Break, happened. As James Spann was tracking a storm on their radar heading for Jacksonville, I was tracking it on my laptop. The storm looked impressive on radar, and prompted a tornado warning for Calhoun County, including Jacksonville and the JSU campus.

Later that evening, after the tornado warning had expired, reports of something no expected to happen started coming into James Spann and Charles Daniel, as well as the ABC 33/40 newsroom. Later confirmed by the National Weather Service to be an EF-3, a tornado had hit Jacksonville and the JSU campus, damaging several campus buildings, including Logan and Patterson Halls, as well as Pete Matthews Coliseum. The storm also destroyed Merrill Hall, which housed the School of Business, as well as the Dollar General across from the Coliseum.

Immediately, I began checking in with those in my small group. Most had left for the week, but a few stayed behind due to work. We hadn't heard from three in the small group, and started to get a little worried. After they were able to get out on their phones that they were, in fact, okay, we all breathed a sigh of relief. However, our hearts broke because the campus and town we call home now lay in ruins.

What I saw in the midst of the event was Psalm 91 in action. Psalm 91 talks about the protection God grants us as we dwell in His shadow. I highly encourage all who read this to read it. While it talks about spiritual protection, as well as physical protection, on that particular night, I saw the physical protection God grants us in action.

I saw that God had protected those who stayed. I also saw God's divine intervention by allowing the majority of students to leave safely for Spring Break before the storm hit. Had it not been Spring Break, I firmly believe that we would've lost several friends and classmates in the storm.

Many over in the Reserve and Gamecock Village lost everything. Campus was closed for a few weeks as those in charge tried to figure out how to finish the semester, or even if we should, as all of our lives were flipped upside down.

However, what followed was truly inspiring and amazing to me. I had friends back home and family ask if I was okay. My church family back home at Pine Mountain Community Church asked if there was anything that they could contribute.

Help came from all over. We had youth from my church back home give up part of their Spring Break, which was the week following JSU's scheduled Spring Break, to come up and help with Samaritan's Purse to help those in need. In the next article, I will discuss that, and how it affected the youth who were able to come up, as well as share a few of the stories of those in my small group who were affected by the storm.

One year later, we are still JSU Strong!