Inside the tornado that hit the Andover Y: ‘I’m just glad I have my life right now’

Morgan Hamlin, a 25-year-old service desk technician, was relaxing in the family pool at the Andover YMCA Friday night after swimming laps in a larger pool when a lifeguard approached and said everyone needed to get out.

“The Y’s closing because there’s a tornado warning,” he said.

That was 8:11 p.m.

A quick couple of minutes later, Hamlin said he was dried off and changed, getting ready to leave, when another Y employee came on a loudspeaker and “in a pretty serious tone: ‘Everybody needs to get to the locker rooms now!’ ”

At this point, Hamlin said people were running back and forth between the locker rooms and the front entry where some reported already seeing a tornado approaching.

“They were right at the front door, looking out the front door, looking out the windows,” Hamlin said.

It’s the same front door where a tornado seconds later threw cars into the building.

“The whole main lobby foyer area is completely destroyed,” Hamlin said. “Anything that wasn’t . . . concrete or steel was completely destroyed.”

He took video after he emerged from the family locker room. The video shows debris falling from the entry ceiling — a good part of which Hamlin said is now gone — as people jump back.

YMCA spokeswoman Shamain Bachman said no one was injured.

“The Y really did a very excellent job of making sure that people got to safe places and didn’t go outside,” Hamlin said. “It could have been a lot more catastrophic if they didn’t.”

In a statement, Bachman agreed, saying, “We are extremely proud of our employees at the Andover Y, who saved lives by reacting quickly in this crisis situation last evening. Employees who were both on and off duty, had only minutes to react and get everyone to safety before the tornado hit the building.”

The Andover YMCA is closed until further notice.

Aaron Thompson, a 19-year-old Wichita State University student, was working out with some friends on the YMCA’s second floor when their phones issued a tornado warning, and the YMCA announcement came to take cover. Except he thought it was merely a suggestion in case anyone was worried.

“We were thinking that it wasn’t that serious, so we were kind of considering . . . just continuing to work out,” he said.

He saw some people at a bank of windows taking pictures. Puzzled, he approached and saw a tornado forming. Thompson took his own picture and then headed for the men’s locker room.

“We were all pretty much in disbelief that there was a tornado outside.”

Still, he and his friends didn’t expect it to hit the building.

“We were going to go back to what we were doing.”

Then, their ears all started to pop, which they began to discuss until one friend said, “Focus on the bigger picture here: There’s a tornado coming down.”

Hamlin said he’s never been in a tornado previously, and he said it unfolded just as everyone reports.

“You could hear that little bit of a rumble as it was about to get there.”

Then came the sound of a freight train and the feel of an earthquake.

“I had my ears plugged with my fingers, but it was still so loud,” Hamlin said. “Pretty much as soon as the tornado . . . hit the building, all the power went out.”

About eight people sheltered where he was, including a mother and her toddler, he said.

“The toddler wasn’t freaking out at all.”

Unlike the scurrying that happened before everyone took shelter, Hamlin said there was a calm that came over the locker room.

“The vibe had changed,” he said. “I think they just kind of hunkered down like I did. I was doing a silent prayer, saying, ‘Please let it pass and don’t bring the building down on top of us.’ ”

Thompson said there were “rumbling noises and sounds of things breaking . . . and this giant gust of debris and wind, like, shoots through the door” of the locker room.

He said it was “pretty chaotic for a couple of seconds.”

Ceiling tiles and glass littered the hallway, which also was full of water.

“There was . . . a bunch of dust in my mouth from breathing in,” Thompson said.

Though some lights broke in the locker room where he was, Hamlin said no one was especially upset.

“I was keeping it together pretty well. It wasn’t until after I got back out of the building and saw how bad everything was that I went, ‘Wow.’ ”

He said his adrenaline began to rush as he absorbed everything.

Hamlin said that over and over, people exclaimed, “Oh, my god, my car!” as they saw vehicles smashed against the building.

That’s not what he said he was thinking about.

Hamlin said his focus was “to get out of this building because I don’t know if it’s about to fall down right now.”

Even in that moment, though, he had another overriding thought.

“I’m just glad I have my life right now.”

Thompson called the tornado “just the most surreal experience in my life. Craziest thing ever.”

He said he knows exactly what he’s doing if he’s in similar situation again.

“Taking cover instantly.”

This story was originally published April 30, 2022 at 2:43 PM.