Still as much in Kansas as we ever were
Aug. 19th, 2009 04:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pameladeanWell, that was unsettling. I came home from lunch with my mother, in a profound downpour, and the power went off. I called Xcel Energy, who said 3000 people were without power, it was a problem with a circuit breaker, and they expected the power to be back on by 3:20. It was pouring with rain, but the sky was fairly light; the sun even broke through for a moment. I was looking in vain for Minneapolis's public wireless system when the tornado sirens cut loose.
I tried both weather radios, but though they were faithfully supplied with batteries, it must have been too long since the batteries were changed. Raphael tried the windup flashlight, which has a radio, but the radio uses up the power fast. The rain was falling straight down and the sky was pale gray, but they don't generally run the sirens for minor occasions. We put Jordan in her carrier and took her to the basement, where I captured Ari and shut him in David's room. Lydy had gone out to pick up a prescription, so Arwen and Naomi were both bored in her absence and alarmed by the sirens, and they came downstairs without persuasion and hid under the workbench in the shop. I was rather worried about Lydy, but there was still no actual sign of tornado weather, and she was probably already inside at Walgreen's.
Raphael eventually got Minnesota Public Radio on the flashlight, after cranking it more lastingly, though it had a very irritating tendency to suddenly die just as they were talking about the tornado warnings, and when it lost power, it forgot what station it was on. In the meantime my mother called my cellphone and left me a message saying, "I wanted to be sure you knew about the tornado and weren't in it." I called her back, and she said there was a tornado at 36th and Portland. That is not at all far away -- one and a half long blocks north and about eight short blocks east of us. Luckily, Lydy had gone in the other direction entirely. I peered up the basement stairs. The trees weren't moving, the sky was light gray, the rain was coming down in sheets. The door alarm beeped, and I realized that Lydy was home, so I went up and told her what was going on. She was very wet, but had seen nothing untoward except for rain. I told her where the cats were, and she said thoughtfully, "It's too dark to read down there." Arwen came up to greet her, but Naomi stayed in the basement. Lydy elected to stay on the first floor with Arwen.
We stood around with Jordan providing commentary from her carrier and Raphael cranking up the flashlight, listening to the bursts of news thus provided. It seemed that the tornado had torn up stuff from the convention center at 15th Street all the way south to about 46th Street, but it was mostly over. When they stopped taking calls from people who had witnessed trees going over and roof tiles flying by, and started talking about what was happening in Washington County, we went upstairs and looked around, and finally brought Jordan upstairs and opened the door to David's room so that Ari could come out when he was over his fright. He hasn't come out yet.
Eric called somewhere in the midst of this to say that his plane from Chicago to Minneapolis had been delayed. The power came back on within five minutes of when Xcel Energy said it would. The weather radio in my office, which is very old and not programmable, has been going off about every five minutes with tornado warnings for counties in Wisconsin as the whole freakish mass of trouble heaves itself north and east.
I hope everybody is all right. Check in here, if you like.
Pamela
I tried both weather radios, but though they were faithfully supplied with batteries, it must have been too long since the batteries were changed. Raphael tried the windup flashlight, which has a radio, but the radio uses up the power fast. The rain was falling straight down and the sky was pale gray, but they don't generally run the sirens for minor occasions. We put Jordan in her carrier and took her to the basement, where I captured Ari and shut him in David's room. Lydy had gone out to pick up a prescription, so Arwen and Naomi were both bored in her absence and alarmed by the sirens, and they came downstairs without persuasion and hid under the workbench in the shop. I was rather worried about Lydy, but there was still no actual sign of tornado weather, and she was probably already inside at Walgreen's.
Raphael eventually got Minnesota Public Radio on the flashlight, after cranking it more lastingly, though it had a very irritating tendency to suddenly die just as they were talking about the tornado warnings, and when it lost power, it forgot what station it was on. In the meantime my mother called my cellphone and left me a message saying, "I wanted to be sure you knew about the tornado and weren't in it." I called her back, and she said there was a tornado at 36th and Portland. That is not at all far away -- one and a half long blocks north and about eight short blocks east of us. Luckily, Lydy had gone in the other direction entirely. I peered up the basement stairs. The trees weren't moving, the sky was light gray, the rain was coming down in sheets. The door alarm beeped, and I realized that Lydy was home, so I went up and told her what was going on. She was very wet, but had seen nothing untoward except for rain. I told her where the cats were, and she said thoughtfully, "It's too dark to read down there." Arwen came up to greet her, but Naomi stayed in the basement. Lydy elected to stay on the first floor with Arwen.
We stood around with Jordan providing commentary from her carrier and Raphael cranking up the flashlight, listening to the bursts of news thus provided. It seemed that the tornado had torn up stuff from the convention center at 15th Street all the way south to about 46th Street, but it was mostly over. When they stopped taking calls from people who had witnessed trees going over and roof tiles flying by, and started talking about what was happening in Washington County, we went upstairs and looked around, and finally brought Jordan upstairs and opened the door to David's room so that Ari could come out when he was over his fright. He hasn't come out yet.
Eric called somewhere in the midst of this to say that his plane from Chicago to Minneapolis had been delayed. The power came back on within five minutes of when Xcel Energy said it would. The weather radio in my office, which is very old and not programmable, has been going off about every five minutes with tornado warnings for counties in Wisconsin as the whole freakish mass of trouble heaves itself north and east.
I hope everybody is all right. Check in here, if you like.
Pamela
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Yikes!
Date: 2009-08-19 09:54 pm (UTC)Sounds like the funnel touched down just across the freeway from our neighborhood, bobbled along towards downtown for awhile, ran into a church where a church dinner was in progress and then (in the words of one witness) "just disappeared."
From the pics I've seen at a quick glance, it looks like a tree-top level "touchdown" of the type that breaks windows and throws trees in every direction as opposed to a house-splintering type. The venerable Electric Fetus has reported damage - I hope it's not too bad. I was driving past that intersection just a few weeks ago and thinking how long that place has been a neighborhood landmark.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-19 10:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-19 10:28 pm (UTC)Glad you all are ok.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-19 10:30 pm (UTC)Going to the basement for a tornado has hardly ever been a particularly memorable experience for me, but there have been two exceptions:
- This afternoon, when I waited out a tornado warning sitting on the floor of a bathroom with two cute Scotty dogs and their owner, and
- Once in high school, when we had an exchange student from Germany staying with us who had never seen that kind of weather before. One of her hometown newspapers called our house and interviewed her about the experience!
no subject
Date: 2009-08-19 10:34 pm (UTC)Of all the things I don't miss about the Midwest, tornadoes are the chief.
(OK, we have earthquakes and volcanoes. They don't scare me, for some reason, as much as tornadoes.)
no subject
Date: 2009-08-19 10:42 pm (UTC)Re: Yikes!
Date: 2009-08-19 10:42 pm (UTC)There were repeated reports of trees, including large ones, down all over, especially on Portland; my mother said they said this was partly caused by the huge amounts of rain, which saturated the ground to the point that the trees came right out of it when the wind hit.
I think that about the Fetus every time I go by it. I hope they aren't too much crunched.
P.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-19 10:43 pm (UTC)P.
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Date: 2009-08-19 10:43 pm (UTC)P.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-19 10:44 pm (UTC)Did you have to take shelter with strangers? If so, the Scotties were certainly a stroke of luck.
I hope your exchange student enjoyed the attention!
P.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-19 10:45 pm (UTC)P.
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Date: 2009-08-19 10:46 pm (UTC)P.
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Date: 2009-08-19 10:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-19 10:55 pm (UTC)Also, seconding or thirding or fourthing this thought: I am glad you and yours are okay. It sounds like you had an exciting day.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-19 11:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-19 11:11 pm (UTC)P.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-19 11:12 pm (UTC)I am not sure where those houses would go. Midgard?
P.
Just so you know....
Date: 2009-08-19 11:18 pm (UTC)Nate
no subject
Date: 2009-08-19 11:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-19 11:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-19 11:37 pm (UTC)Certainly that would put anybody off tornadoes.
P.
Re: Just so you know....
Date: 2009-08-19 11:38 pm (UTC)I think a lot of people had a disturbed work day today.
P.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-19 11:38 pm (UTC)We're a bit further over so we're fine. I've heard from Terry Garey and she and Denny are okay. Still waiting on others.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-19 11:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-19 11:55 pm (UTC)