It’s not quite 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, March 16, and a large group of Missouri S&T students has congregated at a pavilion in Rolla’s Schuman Park, a short distance from the university’s campus.

Just a couple of days ago, a sense of merriment filled the air as many of the same students took part in games and a carnival in this location as part of S&T’s St. Pat’s celebrations. But today, the feeling is a mix of solemness and determination, as everyone has come together to help clean up their community in the aftermath of a tornado that hit Rolla late Friday.

“Can I get everyone to come stand over here, please?” Danielle Evans, president of S&T’s Lambda Sigma Pi service organization, says as she stands atop a picnic table so everyone can easily see her.

“I want to go ahead and say thank you to everyone who came out and showed up — I know this past week has been crazy for a lot of us, if not all of us,” says the junior in engineering management from Blue Springs, Missouri, as she begins to explain how the day will unfold and recaps what brought everyone to the pavilion. “I know it’s cold, and I know there’s a lot going on, so I’m glad that you all are safe and here today.”

On Saturday evening, Lambda Sigma Pi put out an invitation for volunteers to join them in removing trash and tree limbs, provide water and sandwiches, and do whatever else they could to help the local community. Several S&T fraternity and sorority students heeded the call and provided assistance for residences near Highway 72 and Soest Road, as did some alumni, locals and other S&T students.

Had to get his boots

One of those volunteers was Zander Kimberlin-Poore, a junior in civil engineering from Springfield, Missouri, who also helped out the community on Saturday.

When he drove by houses near Rolla Middle School with fallen trees and debris Saturday, he says he felt compelled to get his boots from his home and then return back to the area and assist however he could. Other S&T students and organizations helped at several residences in the area as well.

After his hours of work that day, Kimberlin-Poore says he wanted to continue his support for Rolla residents the following day.

“It could be you; it could be anybody; you might not know them, but they need help,” he says. “My power went out during the storms, and I see some complaining about that. But you see other people have it much worse, and it’s better to be over there helping them.”

Facing another storm

Shasta Moudy, a sophomore in mechanical engineering from Carthage, Missouri, also aided in the community’s recovery this weekend. Moudy, a member of the Zeta Tau Alpha women’s fraternity, was in Joplin when an EF-5 tornado ravaged the community in 2011 when she was seven years old.

Now an adult, she drove to the Rolla cleanup with her truck, plus log chains, ratchet straps, shovels and more equipment to potentially use to move trees and other debris.

“I keep those things in my truck at all times,” she says. “I grew up on a farm, and we raise cattle, so with that and going through the Joplin tornado, I have learned it’s always good to be prepared because you never know what type of situation you’re going to be in.”

Applying her expertise

Dr. Grace Yan, a professor of structural engineering at S&T and director of the university’s Center for Hazard Mitigation and Community Resilience and Wind Hazard Mitigation Laboratory, immediately started planning Friday evening for how she could support the community.

Saturday morning, she and her students began assessing and documenting damage from the storm. She also collaborated with other S&T professors and research centers Saturday and Sunday to fly drones and capture videos and photos.

Yan says the team felt it was important to quickly share the materials with the Rolla School District so officials could see the damage to different school buildings and grounds and consider next steps.

“The school is a public assembly place that can affect a lot of people — not only kids, but also parents,” she says.

The City of Rolla could also potentially use the footage when considering changes to building codes to improve structures’ resiliency, she says, and the National Weather Service will consider the footage when rating the intensity of the tornado, as well as determining its exact path and future risk assessments.

A proud chief

Doug Roberts, chief of Missouri S&T’s University Police, says he has been proud to see so many people affiliated with the university helping with the recovery efforts.

“Missouri S&T’s students, faculty and staff have really stepped up this weekend, but that’s exactly what I would expect them to do,” says Roberts. “It would be hard to list every single organization, team and individual who has contributed, but their collective efforts so far have been remarkable — and I don’t expect them to stop anytime soon. We are all members of the Rolla community, and we want the city to recover as quickly as possible.”

About Missouri S&T

Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) is a STEM-focused research university of over 7,000 students located in Rolla, Missouri. Part of the four-campus University of Missouri System, Missouri S&T offers over 100 degrees in 40 areas of study and is among the nation’s top public universities for salary impact, according to the Wall Street Journal. For more information about Missouri S&T, visit  www.mst.edu.