A severe storm slowly built its way across the state to arrive in Monroe Monday morning.

As the weather took a turn for the worse, campus sirens began ringing an alert of danger.

“I knew it was bad when I heard the tornado emergency alert sound. I had never heard anything like it before,” Kali Gaar said.

Garr, a freshman education major, was trapped in La Capitol during the peak of the storm.

“My roommate and I were told we could use the offices in the back. At one point I had to grab and lock the door because it kept getting opened by the wind,” Gaar said.

Gaar said she and her roommate watched construction tools from Sandel Hall fly by the windows, as well as the collapse of the temporary walkway.

“It just crumbled. There was a girl walking underneath it. I tried to call 911, but the line was busy,” Gaar said.

Gaar also watched as one woman tried to contact her insurance company.

“It looked like a brand new camero. She had to be upset, the walkway had fallen on it as well. She just stood in the rain, talking on her phone,” Gaar said.

The Garden District of Monroe was reportably hit the worst by the storm, according to The National Weather Service.

An EF-2 tornado, peaking at winds of 125 miles per hour, is concluded to have swept through the Garden District.

Jon Aiken, a resident of the Garden District, was unable to return to his home in the days following the storm.

“The power lines were like a spider’s web on the ground,” said Aiken, a senior art major.

Marcelo Gomez, an off-campus resident, watched a student from his complex walk through the stormy weather to class.

“I couldn’t offer him a ride. When it was starting I parked next to Hemphill and walked to Garrett Hall,” said Gomez, a senior biology major.

Gomez said by the time his class began the power was out and the sirens were blaring.

“We waited in the hallway until class was over. A lot of people just waited for the storm to pass, but I left,” Gomez said.

Gomez said he ran to his car and found that luck had been with him.

“The cars next to me both had tree branches on them, but my car was fine. I was very lucky,” Gomez said.

While waiting for her fiancé in the coliseum parking lot, Karen LaCaze, experienced the storm first hand.

“Lightning struck one of the lights that I was parked beside. It jarred my car so I panicked and tried to get out. When I put my car in reverse I looked behind me and saw nothing but debris,” said LaCaze, a freshman psychology major.

LaCaze said her car was lifted into the air and her windows were shattered.

“The underside of my car was also torn up from hitting the ground. It’s by far the scariest thing that has ever happened to me,” LaCaze said.

LaCaze believes classes should have been canceled to avoid students getting hurt.

“Waiting put students in a dangerous situation that could have been avoided,” LaCaze said.

This is the first tornado in Ouachita Parish since March 2009.

The last tornado in the Monroe area was in April of 1995.