Just in Severe Weather
Well, I haven't been here too long, but I just went through my first tornado. I didn't get to see anything, but maybe that's a good thing. I was watching TV and they kept interupting my shows to talk about severe weather warnings. Then they constantly had these scrolling warnings at the bottom of my screen during the show. Eventually I saw my county... then I saw my town... then it said don't wait until you can hear it, that may be too late. So I packed up, grabbed some Krispy Kremes, and got in the car. At work I always see these signs that say "Severe Weather Safe Area" so I figured that would be the best place to go.
On my way out I saw the wind was picking upm and there was lightning everywhere. I booked it over to work, parked and went inside. I didn't see anyone else there (this happened at about 9:30PM on a Sunday). I knew people were there, but I had no idea where, its a gigantic building, and the company I work for has one of the largest networks in the US with a 99.999% uptime. They have redundant network centers in tornado proof bunkers (we aren't allowed in there though). I talked on the phone with my brother for a while, and I wondered if I even needed to go there, and how long I would have to stay there. Then the announcement came from security "Severe weather in the area, please go to the center of the building." I went alone but I found another 20 or so people there... working those late Sunday hours. They were actually working, I only came to be safe from the storm. So we didn't really here anything, but the power flickered a few times... then it went out completely, emergency lights went on, and all the fire doors in the secure area shut automatically. So we were close in the core of the building. I wasn't worried because I knew it was the absolute safest place I could be. We were there for another 20 minutes, then we were given the all clear to leave. They told us which exits to avoid due to downed power lines and a possible gas leak. I went outside and found my car intact... but what I saw afterward made me very glad I decided to go to the safe area at work. I saw uprooted stop signs everywhere, and the moving barriers at the railroad crossing were also completely out of the ground.
But I'm back at my apartment now, everything is back to normal. Its weird seeing these storms though. They've been coming through for days now, this one being the most severe. Just something I'll have to get used to.
~JL
On my way out I saw the wind was picking upm and there was lightning everywhere. I booked it over to work, parked and went inside. I didn't see anyone else there (this happened at about 9:30PM on a Sunday). I knew people were there, but I had no idea where, its a gigantic building, and the company I work for has one of the largest networks in the US with a 99.999% uptime. They have redundant network centers in tornado proof bunkers (we aren't allowed in there though). I talked on the phone with my brother for a while, and I wondered if I even needed to go there, and how long I would have to stay there. Then the announcement came from security "Severe weather in the area, please go to the center of the building." I went alone but I found another 20 or so people there... working those late Sunday hours. They were actually working, I only came to be safe from the storm. So we didn't really here anything, but the power flickered a few times... then it went out completely, emergency lights went on, and all the fire doors in the secure area shut automatically. So we were close in the core of the building. I wasn't worried because I knew it was the absolute safest place I could be. We were there for another 20 minutes, then we were given the all clear to leave. They told us which exits to avoid due to downed power lines and a possible gas leak. I went outside and found my car intact... but what I saw afterward made me very glad I decided to go to the safe area at work. I saw uprooted stop signs everywhere, and the moving barriers at the railroad crossing were also completely out of the ground.
But I'm back at my apartment now, everything is back to normal. Its weird seeing these storms though. They've been coming through for days now, this one being the most severe. Just something I'll have to get used to.
~JL
posted by JC at 10:54 PM
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