The University of Oklahoma is mourning the loss of three meteorology students who died in a car crash driving back from storm chasing in Kansas.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol told the Associated Press that Nicholas Nair, 20, of Denton, Texas was driving southbound on Interstate 35 when the car hydroplaned and struck a tractor-trailer rig in Tonkawa Friday just before 11:30 p.m.
Nair and his passengers Gavin Short, 19, of Grayslake, Illinois; and Drake Brooks, 22, of Evansville, Indiana, died in the crash, troopers said.
"Our community in Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences is close-knit, and our School of Meteorology is very much a family," the OU's College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences said in a statement. "Now, more than ever, we must come together in kindness and heartfelt support for one another."
The three were driving back from Kansas after a strong twister swept through Andover, which destroyed homes and buildings and left more than 15,000 people without power, the AP reported.
According to USA Today, the driver of the tractor-trailer was transported to a Blackwell hospital and was later released.