Good morning,

I am sending this message at the request of Elizabeth Aversa, our colleague and director of the LIS program at the University of Alabama. 

As you may know, Tuscaloosa, AL, was hit very hard by a tornado yesterday.  I spoke to Elizabeth just a few minutes ago.  She reports that all of the LIS faculty are accounted for now and that they are in the process of contacting the staff. So far as they know now, no member of the LIS faculty or staff was injured.  The news about students is still coming in as emergency workers begin to clear debris from residential areas.

 The homes of several faculty members sustained considerable damage; Elizabeth was at one of these homes which lost the roof and second floor when we spoke and she had heard from others whose homes were damaged.

The university is closed because of the situation.  There is a widespread power outage, of course.

Elizabeth appreciates the concern of her friends and colleagues as they work through this very difficult situation.

Diane Barlow
-- 
Diane L. Barlow
Associate Dean
College of Information Studies
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
Office 301-405-2042
Cell 202-297-7778
Fax 301-314-9145