"We all went to the girls bathroom and hid there for two hours," said fifth-grader Sydney Demeulenaere.
Bethel College and Notre Dame notified their students through email, texts phone calls and loud speakers on campus.
South Bend schools, P-H-M, and Mishawaka schools, just to name a few, were ready.
"They responded quickly and thoroughly,” said Dan Towner from School City of Mishawaka. “We're prepared for these types of emergencies when they occur."
Taking precaution was the number one priority throughout St. Joseph County.
Rose called in the possible funnel cloud to the Clay Fire dispatch center.
When the dispatch receives a call about severe weather such as a tornado or a funnel cloud, they'll go through an entire regulated check list with the caller to make sure the sighting is credible.
"If we've got enough time we'll get with the National Weather Service to see what they've got in their system, if they can verify it, but if it’s a trained person and we don’t have time to do it, we'll go ahead and activate," said Bill Zimmerman, the St. Joseph County emergency director.
And that's what happened after Rose called in.
Dispatchers activated “the encoder” a black box which controls every tornado siren in St. Joseph County.
Clay Fire dispatch, South Bend dispatch and the St. Joe county emergency agency are the only places which can turn on the sirens in the county.
Any dispatcher in one of those offices has the authority to press the button.
No tornado eventually touched down.
Even though sirens sounded, the National Weather Service issued no tornado watches or warnings today.
The National Weather Service issued the following statement:
"National Weather Service doppler radar was showing numerous showers across portions of northern Indiana...far southern lower Michigan and northwestern Ohio. A report of a funnel cloud was received east of Crumstown around 135 pm EDT. These are not the type of funnel clouds typically associated with strong thunderstorms. However...conditions are favorable for funnel cloud formation and brief but weak tornadoes could occur in the rare case that one of these funnels reaches the ground. If you observe a funnel cloud...take cover immediately and report to law enforcement."
Some people who live in the county didn't even know there was a tornado warning.
"I didn't pay any attention, I was work at home and I totally missed it, unless the sirens were low out by us," said Tina Wolfram who lives in St. Joseph County.
Others are grateful the warning was at least there.
"Better be safe than sorry," said Israel Demeulenaere who works and lives in St. Joseph County.
There are several hundreds of trained storm spotters in St. Joseph County. It’s a mix of volunteers and first responders.
But not all first responders are trained weather spotters.
Even you’re not trained, dispatch takes every call very seriously.
They encourage anyone to call in if they spot severe weather of any kind.
If you're not trained they will verify your call a more closely with the National Weather Service before turning the sirens on.
