Wednesday night started like any other for Rocky Keyes.

His Kansas State University roommates and their friends were going to watch a movie, but about 10 p.m. he decided to turn in.

“I just got back from Germany six days ago and I was still kind of jet-lagged and I had a 9 a.m. class,” the 2007 McLouth High School graduate said.

About 20 minutes later, the sounds of tornado sirens woke him up. Keyes, a lifelong Kansan, is no stranger to severe weather, so he went to check what was happening.

“I asked my roommates if they were watching the Weather Channel, but they were still watching the movie,” Keyes said. “They didn’t know anything was going on.”

Keyes said he and his roommates, Marlo Adcock and Erin Grotheer, got on the Internet to see what the weather conditions were for the area. They saw they were under a tornado watch, but within 15 minutes the watch became a warning.

“By that time we heard there was a tornado in Manhattan and that it was going through campus,” he said.

Keyes, his roommates and the two other friends that were at their home took shelter in the home’s unfinished basement. There they spent the next two hours using a futon mattress and jackets as protection.

“I wasn’t really scared,” Keyes said. “But this was definitely the closest I’ve been to a tornado.”

Thursday morning, Keyes ventured out to check the damage. He was shocked that their home at 16th and Osage streets was only two blocks away from the edge of the destruction. He went to the Acacia fraternity to see whether his fraternity house was still intact. It was, but he said the fraternity house across the street had severe roof damage. He said there was extensive damage throughout campus.

“There was just stuff everywhere,” Keyes said. “People were pulling over and taking pictures. Students and faculty were out of their houses looking at the damage. It was like something you would see in a movie – everyone was out walking around, but nobody was talking.”

He called his mother, Melinda Harwood, to let her know he was safe.

When her son called, Harwood said she still didn’t know a tornado had struck Manhattan.

“(He) told me he was all right. I said, ‘Why did you tell me you are all right?'” Harwood said.

Then Keyes told her about the tornado, and she said there was only one way to describe how she felt. “Whew,” she said, sighing.

“We are very blessed that we still have all of his pieces together,” she said.