I am currently sitting in ASC student center waiting for the police to deem the building safe to reenter. It has already been confirmed that there is a flood on the third floor. Now I sit across from my friend, waiting to be reunited with my bed. During this incident, I took it upon myself to interview a few of my peers asking them two questions: What did you grab when the alarm went off? What do you wish you would have grabbed? The following list was compiled based off of their answers as well as my own experience.
Glasses
The first thing I grabbed when the fire alarm went off was my glasses. I knew that I needed to see EVERYTHING that was going on around me. I popped my head out of my door to see how other people were reacting to the alarm going off. It seemed unlikely there would be a fire drill this early in the morning; 2:34 am to be exact. I went back into my room [and] turned on the light. I started to grab my stuff but my roommate and I had a bit of a struggle getting her cat, Bakari, into the carrier as he put up quite the fight.
Phone/Communication device
The next thing I grabbed was my phone. These are my ways to interact with the rest of civilization outside of the ASC community. Luckily, ASC has a charging station in the student center which is being fully utilized at the moment. Our student center is also equipped with five computers on the first floor, one of which I used to begin this article. Although the student center has a charging station many people wished they would have grabbed their chargers because there were not enough charging cords.
Jacket/Blanket
If you are removed from your room early in the morning or late in the night, it will likely be cold, and plus it’s December right now. So, yeah. My jacket was the next thing I picked up because let’s face it, I would rather have it and not need it than to be out and find it necessary. Plus, I know myself. I love to be bundled up. Also, a lot of people decided to sleep in the student center during the wait.
Playing Cards/Entertainment
Having something to do while you wait is crucial to your sanity. I regret that I didn’t grab my playings cards or something that my friends and I could do to entertain ourselves with. Although there were televisions downstairs, not many people were watching them as they all just wanted to get back to their beds. Still, playing cards were at the top of the list for entertainment to bring during such incidents.
Fooood
Late-night/early morning munchies, yikes! Before we left the building, I grabbed a banana nut loaf, stuffing it in my pocket along with a bottle of water. Boy, oh boy, was this the best choice of my life. As we all entered the student center I opened my loaf and it was devoured in less than five minutes. Many of us did not grab money so going to Waffle House was not an option.
Face-mask
Seeing as it is December (flu season) and there were so a lot of us crowded together, a face mask would have gone a long way. Almost everyone I saw looked sick or was coughing which made the whole situation worse. Thankfully, the student center had hand sanitizer so my friend and I doused our hands and sat far away from the rest of the lot.
Had the situation been more pressing, then I would have lost a lot of my important documents. A few things that I wished I would have grabbed were my passport and ID, laptop, and some money. The responses of my peers and I further reveals to us the world we live in today, one where technology is more important than anything else.