<p>linnylu… i would think she would have her phone with her most of the time…she might not take her ipad with her if she went off campus… i would go with the phone</p>
<p>linnylu, can you not add your daughter to your plan’s data plan? It may not be that much more. I know that Verizon is in Tuscaloosa, but last I heard, 4g was not there yet. That will kill my son, but hopefully, they will get it soon!</p>
<p>Also, my husband was asking me how often there has been a tornado on/near the campus in the past 10 years. Does anyone know? I know that is a pretty obscure fact for someone to have an answer to.</p>
<p>An actual strong tornado? Other that the one last year? I’ve had kids on Bama’s campus since 07, and there haven’t been any that we know of…at least not large enough to concern us. There may have been weak ones here or there in the greater Tuscaloosa area, but nothing that would be worth being concerned over. </p>
<p>I’ve never heard of Bama having to do repairs because of any past tornado damage. I think if there had been some in the past 10-20 years or so, those stories would have been featured after the April tornado. </p>
<p>The only past damage Bama talks about is from the Civil War.</p>
<p>Tornadoes are measured for strength like earthquakes are. I’m from Calif, and there are minor earthquakes ALL THE TIME, but the serious ones are rare…just like it’s rare to have a tornado like last year. I think it was reported that that type last happened 50 years earlier. </p>
<p>You don’t have to have extra worry about such things. Every area has some weather issue…hurricanes, ice/snow storms, tornadoes, earthquakes, etc. I prefer tornatoes over earthquakes because earthquakes don’t have warnings.</p>
<p>Brick buildings do very well in tornadoes. Even on 15th Street, the multi-story brick buildings were not brought down. If a brick building was badly damaged, it was usually only the top floor or it was an older one story. </p>
<p>those who were hurt or died were mostly in homes with siding or mobile homes…not in bottom floors of multi-story brick buildings.</p>
<p>linnylu: my kids don’t have smart phones either; they both upgraded over Christmas & were adamant that they didn’t need data plans (who was I to argue!) D1 has an iPod Touch that acts as the non-phone part of a smart phone & since she’s on campus 90% of the time with wi-fi access, she felt that was good enough for her. The iPhone weather app works on there too.</p>
<p>I just came back from our first visit to campus. I was very interested in the real-time bus app that they say you can download to see where the buses are at that very moment. Good idea if it is at night or bad weather. Can my kid download to her itouch? We dont have Iphones but she will be farther off campus at the speech and hearing center and I liked the idea of her being able see how long she has to wait for the bus.</p>
<p>I lived in Tuscaloosa all of my life until moving OOS and I still have many family members who live there. I am 48 and do not know of a tornado ever directly hitting the UA campus. As I recall, there was wind damage to the roofs of some of the on campus apartments (Bryce Lawn maybe, not sure of the name now) a few years back from a tornado, but nothing on the ground to my knowledge In my lifetime, there hasn’t been a tornado of the magnitude of April 27th there although I can recall tornado damage to the McFarland Boulevard area a couple of times (the old McFarland Mall was damaged) when I was a child and the Skyland Boulevard area has been hit a couple of times with damage over the years. This really doesn’t mean much. The weather has been severe many places across the country over the past year.</p>
<p>Not trying to make anyone nervous…but I just watched the most recent episode of Pitbulls and Parolees. Tia and dhtr went total Tuscaloosa after the tornado last spring to help a rescue that was in the path of the tornado. It was pretty devastating damage done. Pretty eye opening. </p>
(which has a line practically out the door!)</p>