ENTERPRISE, Ala. — Roy Crump III says there’s only one way he can describe why he is alive and graduating as one of the valedictorians at Enterprise High School.
“I think it was a miracle that I survived,” Crump said.
Little more than a year ago, a tornado destroyed his school, trapping Crump under rubble with a broken bone in his back. Along the same corridor, the roof and walls collapsed on a group of eight students, killing them. Four of them would have graduated Thursday night.
“I was stuck under a locker and some of the roof, and my back hurt,” said Crump, who didn’t find out his back was broken until the next day.
“I knew what had happened,” he said. “I was just hoping to get out.”
Like most other Enterprise students who experienced the horror of March 1, 2007, Crump said he has recovered physically and mentally and is ready to get on with his life. He plans to attend Auburn University this fall.
“Life is back to normal here,” Crump said, sitting in a downtown Enterprise ice cream parlor with his grandparents several hours before Thursday night’s graduation. “Everybody recovered so quickly. That’s what’s amazing.”
Crump and other students have said life returned to normal despite drastic changes in their daily routine.
Students have been attending classes at a nearby community college, many in portable buildings set up around the campus. Construction is scheduled to start this year on a new high school.
Students have often attended classes until 5 p.m. this year instead of the normal 3 p.m. ending time. Students have complained that they did not get the same breaks between classes as at their old school, which meant less time to meet with friends.
But there have been special moments too. At the prom last year, the food was prepared by television host Rachel Ray, and pop singer Mandy Moore performed several songs. Personal messages from President Bush were read to students at last year’s commencement exercises and at a memorial service on the one-year anniversary of the storm.
And on Thursday night, first lady Laura Bush was to address students at the high school football stadium, next to the empty lot where the high school used to stand. Construction workers are busy next door, building a new elementary school to replace one destroyed by the same tornado that hit the high school.
Susie Bandy is thrilled that her daughter, Mary, will be among the graduates.
Mary Bandy missed school the day of the tornado because of a doctor’s appointment. If she had been at school, her mother thinks she too would have been huddled in that hallway where others died.
Susie Bandy said it’s appropriate for the first lady to come to Enterprise.
“I’m glad she’s going to get to shake the hands of all the kids,” she said.
