Mother nature gave TCU students and neighbors an early wake-up call this morning.

A patch of high winds, heavy rain and hail moved through west Fort Worth, triggering the TCU emergency response system around 4 a.m.

Faculty, students and, in some cases, students’ parents received texts and phone calls alerting them to the weather situation.

“The system was activated by the TCU police department at the request of our Emergency Management and Business Continuity Director,” said Kathryn Cavins-Tull, the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs.

The decision was made after contacting both the National Weather Service and the emergency center in Fort Worth, Cavins-Tull said.

Students and professors were not too fond of the early morning wake up call.

Many students took to Twitter and Snapchat to document their storm experience and express their frustrations.

“It was an appropriate use of our emergency system to warn those who might be in harm’s way to seek shelter,” said Cavins-Tull.

On campus, students were treated to TCU’s warning sirens telling them to stay inside.

The loudspeakers and sirens were added in 2008 to help improve campus safety, Cavins-Tull said.

“The emergency notification system is a very good system that is deployed to keep people from danger,” she said.

“I understand that our community is tired today and some may be frustrated by an interruption of sleep,” she said. “If there are ways for us to keep people safe, sleeping and notified of impending situations, we will figure that out.”