According to the blurb in the Feb. 14 issue of Clarksville's "The
Leaf-Chronicle," an unidentified, female student took a picture of her messy room,
labeled it "after the tornado" and sent it to her mother.
According to the newspaper, the girl's room actually was spared by the
tornado.
The photo above shows a bathroom in Harvill Hall that was turned
upside down by the winds of the tornado.
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Austin Peay in the news
There are better ways to
make headlines, but media coverage of the tornado’s devastation attracted, not only
local, but also regional and national attention for Austin Peay.
In addition to excellent
coverage by local media and regional radio stations, TV-43 in Hopkinsville, Ky., and
"The Leaf-Chronicle," the network affiliates of NBC, CBS and ABC in Nashville
gave extensive coverage to Clarksville and Austin Peay.
The large, media trucks
with their satellite dishes from WSMV-Channel 4, WTVF-Channel 5 and WKRN-Channel 2, all of
Nashville, were part of the campus landscape for more than a week following the tornado.
Joining them
periodically were TNN and CNN. Some of the coverage by the three affiliate stations, along
with TNN and CNN, was telecast by their national networks.
A near-full-page story
about the destruction on campus and Operation Restoration ran on the front page of
"Simi Valley Star" (Calif. paper). "The Chronicle of Higher Education"
ran an article with a photo of tornado-damaged Harned Hall.
Despite the bleak and
scary story depicted in hundreds of photos and television shots, most media focused on how
quickly APSU had responded to this major natural disaster and how the tornado’s
winds, rather than blowing the University apart, had served to cement a feeling of
community and caring within the University family.
On Jan. 24--just two days after the tornado--members of the
media were allowed on campus to file the damage. Their access was limited to areas
deemed "safe" by building inspectors. Television crews from Nashville's
ABC, NBC and CBS affiliate stations, as well as Fox, CNN and TV43 of Hopkinsville, KY.,
converged on campus. Many parked their satellite-uplink trucks on campus for days
after the tornado.
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Spring '99 