Tornado Closes Springdale Robotics Center

An EF-3 tornado touched down in our area early this morning and destroyed many homes, businesses, a school, and our robotics center. We had two mentors in the building working on machining parts for competition for FRC Team 5006 Apophis when the tornado hit. Luckily, they took shelter in the kitchen closet and are uninjured. We sorted through the debris for most of the day finding that all the robots were relatively unscathed as the FRC robot was nicely protected by being rolled like a burrito into the carpet by the wind and the FTC robots were on a wall just past the damage roof.

Even with something this sad happening, our students found ways to lighten the day by cracking jokes. One student commented how she loved the new sky light and thought that it was a great addition we never knew we needed. To which another student commented that it really opened up the space though they might have also been referring to the entire wall that was missing. The students also pointed out that even with all the destruction there were still some things left exactly were they were left the night or months before. For example, a student was throwing chocolates in the air and catching them in his mouth when he accidently threw it too high and got it stuck on the I beam. Even though this happened months before the tornado, that tiny piece of chocolate was still sitting on that I beam.

Students weren't the only one's finding light in a dark time. One of our mentors got to fulfill a dream. With no roof, the slight rain was a bother to work under so we were happy when it stopped raining, but it didn't stop raining inside the building. The sprinklers were showering us with a nice light rain. The water shutoff valve was chained close by the fire department as normal but with everything else going on, we didn't want to bother the fire department with something so small. Our mentor cut the chain and turned the water off, and as he was walking back to the group, he said "I've always wanted to do that!"

The side of our building after the tornado. We had strips of metal roofing weaved into our machine shop.

We would like to thank the community for coming to our aid and helping us sort through the debris and loading many, many trailers full of salvageable materials to different locations. A big thank you to the Meyer Family for the pizza, cheerful attitude, and man power!

The Springdale Robotics Center will be closed until further notice.