High winds at the department store
Apr. 14th, 2006 12:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soc_puppetI feel no guilt what-so-ever about spammin f'lists at the moment, as it is now Friday! Hooray! ...Sorta.
Anyway, for those of you who are actually aware of where I live and what's going on in the area, I'm perfectly safe. I'm unharmed, my family is fine, the house is... fine, I think; it's dark and I haven't had a chance to look. The car is (more or less) fine. Wal-Mart is... less fine, but relatively easily salvageable, I think.
For those of you who aren't aware of what's going on where I live, or if you're interested in the details, here they are.
At roughly seven this evening, I left home with my mother to go shopping for a new Easter outfit. Clothes shopping isn't usually number one on my list of priorities, but it isn't bad once in a while. Clouds were gathering as we left home, though they weren't too bad yet.
Our first stop was K-Mart. We spent about half an hour there. I didn't see anything I particularly needed or wanted, though Mom picked out some new sheets. We decided on Wal-Mart next.
Clouds were thicker as we left the parking lot. Mom noticed that they were rather yellow in the distance to the left of us, and mentioned that it was a sign of tornados. I don't think she was positive, though, and chances are usually low besides. I certainly wasn't expecting much more than your usual thunderstorm. On the way I cracked a joke about getting more storm signals than in Kitzbuhel.
We had a smattering of rain as we neared Wal-Mart, and there was lightning in the distance. I commented to Mom that thunderstorms usually didn't last for more than fifteen minutes, though I was secretly worried about the pace of the rainfall; it was slower than usual, so I thought it might last a bit longer. She dropped me off at the door so I wouldn't get too wet.
I lingered in the store a while, looking for stuff I might like, and actually found some. Ran into Mom, tried some of it on, lingered a while longer because I couldn't find her again.
Then the intercom switched on and we were told to go to the back of the store in the Infants/Toddlers section because there was a tornado warning. Walked briskly back there, because I am the sort who likes to Cooperate In An Emergency, even if it is all bureaucracy. Thus it made me very nervous when Mom insisted on walking around and looking at stuff rather than staying in one place and sitting uncomfortably. (Now that I've had more time to think, it occurs to me that Mom was probably trying to keep from freaking out, but then I would've been more comfortable just sitting down and taking orders.) Mom picked out some things for a baby cousin of some degree of seperation, and then we wandered into the shoe section, where I picked out a pair of sandals to go with my new outfit (something I would not have done if I hadn't been stuck in the store). We checked out what we could see of the movie selection (not much that either of us was interested in) and went to sit down in the Layaway area, because it had a bench. Mom spotted an employee there and asked if she could use a phone, probably to call Dad and Tom and let them know we were okay.
Let me just say that I love Iowa. It's probably one of the few places where people are so desensitized to tornado alarms that they'll just walk around freely until they're sure something bad is going to happen, which was the case here. The collection of customers (and probably a few people from the road as well) were dispersed fairly evenly in the Infants/Toddlers section and very nearby surrounding areas.
The timeline gets a little shaky from there. I'm pretty sure one of the vents, er, 'blew out' I suppose next, causing a loud whumping noise and a cloud of dust to rain from the ceiling. I missed the first one, but caught the second and third. I can't remember if it was before or after the lights went out that we were ordered to the back of the store now, but it wasn't long after that. I do remember running to the nearest wall, saying half-garbled Hail Marys to myself as I did so, Mom not far behind. In any case, we were soon seated in the dark between some baby toys and a group of three adults and six kids, pretty much all in the preschool age or thereabouts. We talked for a little while, and then Mom distracted herself by distracting the kids. I did my best to join in, though I'm not the best with them when they're that age.
A while later we were encouraged to move to a more corner-ey spot. Somewhere in that frame of time there was a strange sound, rather like a controlled spot of rain moving from one end of the roof to the other. I was informed that it was a tornado and that we were indeed actually under it.
Things picked up a bit from there. A couple of tiles fell from the ceiling with nothing above them to shield the floor from rain, but there were no more vent incidents, and I didn't hear the tornado again. At around nine we were allowed to slowly leave the store. (And no, I could not actually take my potential Easter outfit home with me.)
The car was surrounded by strips of roofing... stuff, which we had to get out of the way before we could leave. Thankfully it was thin and lightweight, so it didn't take long. On the way home I completely failed to figure out the car radio, so we listened to classical music. Thankfully it was a fairly local station, so we did catch another weather report on the way home. Mom said that was as close as she ever wanted to get to an actual tornado.
Once at home we let Dad and Tom know we were safe, yay!, and Mom called Grandma to fill her in and wish her a happy birthday. Dad also made a comment about the wrath of God and shopping at Wal-Mart which I'm not planning to pay attention to at the moment.
Anyway, that's the story. Though after something like that happening, a day off on Friday--er, today--seems a bit cheap almost.
Anyway, for those of you who are actually aware of where I live and what's going on in the area, I'm perfectly safe. I'm unharmed, my family is fine, the house is... fine, I think; it's dark and I haven't had a chance to look. The car is (more or less) fine. Wal-Mart is... less fine, but relatively easily salvageable, I think.
For those of you who aren't aware of what's going on where I live, or if you're interested in the details, here they are.
At roughly seven this evening, I left home with my mother to go shopping for a new Easter outfit. Clothes shopping isn't usually number one on my list of priorities, but it isn't bad once in a while. Clouds were gathering as we left home, though they weren't too bad yet.
Our first stop was K-Mart. We spent about half an hour there. I didn't see anything I particularly needed or wanted, though Mom picked out some new sheets. We decided on Wal-Mart next.
Clouds were thicker as we left the parking lot. Mom noticed that they were rather yellow in the distance to the left of us, and mentioned that it was a sign of tornados. I don't think she was positive, though, and chances are usually low besides. I certainly wasn't expecting much more than your usual thunderstorm. On the way I cracked a joke about getting more storm signals than in Kitzbuhel.
We had a smattering of rain as we neared Wal-Mart, and there was lightning in the distance. I commented to Mom that thunderstorms usually didn't last for more than fifteen minutes, though I was secretly worried about the pace of the rainfall; it was slower than usual, so I thought it might last a bit longer. She dropped me off at the door so I wouldn't get too wet.
I lingered in the store a while, looking for stuff I might like, and actually found some. Ran into Mom, tried some of it on, lingered a while longer because I couldn't find her again.
Then the intercom switched on and we were told to go to the back of the store in the Infants/Toddlers section because there was a tornado warning. Walked briskly back there, because I am the sort who likes to Cooperate In An Emergency, even if it is all bureaucracy. Thus it made me very nervous when Mom insisted on walking around and looking at stuff rather than staying in one place and sitting uncomfortably. (Now that I've had more time to think, it occurs to me that Mom was probably trying to keep from freaking out, but then I would've been more comfortable just sitting down and taking orders.) Mom picked out some things for a baby cousin of some degree of seperation, and then we wandered into the shoe section, where I picked out a pair of sandals to go with my new outfit (something I would not have done if I hadn't been stuck in the store). We checked out what we could see of the movie selection (not much that either of us was interested in) and went to sit down in the Layaway area, because it had a bench. Mom spotted an employee there and asked if she could use a phone, probably to call Dad and Tom and let them know we were okay.
Let me just say that I love Iowa. It's probably one of the few places where people are so desensitized to tornado alarms that they'll just walk around freely until they're sure something bad is going to happen, which was the case here. The collection of customers (and probably a few people from the road as well) were dispersed fairly evenly in the Infants/Toddlers section and very nearby surrounding areas.
The timeline gets a little shaky from there. I'm pretty sure one of the vents, er, 'blew out' I suppose next, causing a loud whumping noise and a cloud of dust to rain from the ceiling. I missed the first one, but caught the second and third. I can't remember if it was before or after the lights went out that we were ordered to the back of the store now, but it wasn't long after that. I do remember running to the nearest wall, saying half-garbled Hail Marys to myself as I did so, Mom not far behind. In any case, we were soon seated in the dark between some baby toys and a group of three adults and six kids, pretty much all in the preschool age or thereabouts. We talked for a little while, and then Mom distracted herself by distracting the kids. I did my best to join in, though I'm not the best with them when they're that age.
A while later we were encouraged to move to a more corner-ey spot. Somewhere in that frame of time there was a strange sound, rather like a controlled spot of rain moving from one end of the roof to the other. I was informed that it was a tornado and that we were indeed actually under it.
Things picked up a bit from there. A couple of tiles fell from the ceiling with nothing above them to shield the floor from rain, but there were no more vent incidents, and I didn't hear the tornado again. At around nine we were allowed to slowly leave the store. (And no, I could not actually take my potential Easter outfit home with me.)
The car was surrounded by strips of roofing... stuff, which we had to get out of the way before we could leave. Thankfully it was thin and lightweight, so it didn't take long. On the way home I completely failed to figure out the car radio, so we listened to classical music. Thankfully it was a fairly local station, so we did catch another weather report on the way home. Mom said that was as close as she ever wanted to get to an actual tornado.
Once at home we let Dad and Tom know we were safe, yay!, and Mom called Grandma to fill her in and wish her a happy birthday. Dad also made a comment about the wrath of God and shopping at Wal-Mart which I'm not planning to pay attention to at the moment.
Anyway, that's the story. Though after something like that happening, a day off on Friday--er, today--seems a bit cheap almost.
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no subject
Date: 2006-04-15 06:45 am (UTC)Glad your alright. :)
no subject
Date: 2006-04-15 03:01 pm (UTC)I'm glad I'm okay, too ;) I'm especially glad that the computer's alright.