Students arriving at MSU during Welcome Weekend are used to dealing with unfamiliar faces, stacks of boxes and crowded parking lots.

But they generally don't have to deal with the gas leaks, hail and tornadoes that welcomed this year's crop of incoming students.

A series of natural and man-made mishaps affected Welcome Weekend activities, beginning Thursday morning with a gas leak.

A pipe in the Wharton Center parking lot was disturbed during construction at 8:30 a.m., university officials said. The resulting leak caused the morning performance of "University Welcome and Faces of America" to be pushed back an hour. The delay led to a crowd outside the center.

"We just decided to stay," microbiology senior Sarah Ward said. Ward attended - and waited - with other residents from the second floor of Bryan Hall. "It would be a 40-minute walk to Brody and another 40-minute walk back."

The leak was repaired by 10:30 a.m. and presentations for the rest of the day continued as normal.

Unexpected weather affected other events on campus.

The National Weather Service considered the hail, which spanned up to 1.5 inches in diameter, to be severe. Shortly after attendees gathered in the hot, cramped tunnels, the rally was canceled.

As the evening progressed, hail and rain turned into tornadoes. A sickly yellow sky covered the area as 15 buses transported students along Grand River Avenue for Midnight Madness.

The buses stopped at about 8:30 p.m. when warning sirens in the area went off. Students on the buses were stranded until the weather improved.

Student Life employees approached people waiting at the bus stops and told them to go inside, said Cathy Neuman, assistant director of Student Life.

Students who stayed inside for the storm filled the hallways and basements, many bringing cell phones with them to check on friends and family.

Autumn Thomas, an international relations and history senior, said she wasn't concerned about the warning.

"There was a girl on my floor from Wyoming who was worried because she'd never had to deal with tornadoes before," Thomas said.

Michigan's tornado season is usually spring, said Wayne Hoepner, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids.

"We see some more right before fall as the cold fronts start coming in," Hoepner said.

The tornado missed East Lansing and touched down in Webberville, about 20 miles away, according to the National Weather Service.

Midnight Madness continued as normal from 9:30 p.m. until 1 a.m. after the storm blew over.