The Wind Done Blowed
Posted on May 9, 2010 Posted by John Scalzi 15 Comments
And this is what what happened when it did:
That’s from the thunderstorm on Friday, which spawned a tornado watch. It passed south of our house but hit Troy, Ohio, which is where this picture was taken and which lost power for most of the city for a while — the picture goes some distance to suggesting why that might have been. In the distance you can see that one of the poles is so far over it has to be propped up by a crane. Krissy, who is an insurance adjuster by trade, is dreading going into work on Monday. And who can blame her.
No twisters in Columbus — though we were under Watch and it was very blowy and the grid miraculously held up! I swear I’ve never heard of a major city with such a delicate power supply. Our lights go out if someone at a campus pub burps too long.
Ouch. I do not envy Krissy. Nor any of the folks she’s going to have to talk to…
There are many reasons I moved out of Tornado Alley. I think the storms themselves are the biggest one…
I grok really liking someplace and wanting to stay despite its hazards. See also, being able to see at least three active volcanoes on my horizon, and having an active fault within a few miles. But I can deal with that.
Good luck dealing with your own personal hazards-of-choice.
I lived in Xenia, OH for a couple of years; long-time Ohioans may remember Xenia from 1974, when more than 75% of the town was flattened by a pack of twisters. More than a decade later, parts of the town still showed damage from the tornadoes: steps leading up to vacant lots, steel-pipe handrails twisted like wrought iron, etc.
Glad that there were no actual tornadoes spotted there, although there were probable flying shingles aplenty.
Drove by Lowe’s at 5:30 a.m. Saturday, and wondered just why in the world all of the sample sheds looked like they’d been through a twister. Nothing but twisted wreckage.
Glass half full thought for your better half: at least she isn’t doing claims adjusting in Nashville. Floods stink and not just metaphorically.
Be glad you weren’t in Mississippi when the tornadoes came through. It’s a mess.
Recently talked with a friend here in GA who is an insurance agent, he’s still trying to get clients back into their homes after the catastrophic Sept ’09 1000-year level floods we had here. Said several people have simply abandoned their homes because the banks holding the loans don’t care the property isn’t livable until repaired and the cost of repairs even with insurance money (if any), FEMA, State & grant money isn’t enough to make them habitable.
Other people are living in the moldy, festering, falling-down remains of their houses because they’ve run out of other options. Not a pretty picture here either if you’re from one of the affected areas.
Did anyone else immediately think of the marching hammers from The Wall?
You would think that the wind would miss skinny things like power poles and wires and flatten large surface-area things like subdivision signs and the like. Nature works in strange ways.
The roofs around here (Northern Nevada) are built for 100 mph winds. We lost some roofing tiles about a week ago. It gave me respect for hurricanes and tornadoes. I don’t think my fragile nerves could handle them. After two hours of sustained howling, gusting winds here, I put on my headphones and listen to music. In spite of the wind and power outages, the school bus showed up on time, and the kids here went to school all day without power. Lunch was sandwiches. Recess was indoors, in which kids could talk quietly with their friends, or draw.
Holy COW! The wind even blew the sidewalks all crooked!
Up in the eastern suburbs of Cleveland we had the wind as well, John, and my neighbors 100+ foot oak came down across both of our front yards. Thankfully nobody was hurt and the clean up progresses…
Please express my condolences to Krissy for having to face disaster at work tomorrow morning.
I kind of understand how she feels. I write about the global finance markets for some websites in the UK. It’s been kind of depressing, this past week or so, having to face all the bad news in the mornings. Actually, it’s been kind of depressing for a couple of years now, but last week was crazy.
Obviously, I don’t have to see the personal devastation caused by the crappy economic news (except on my own economic condition, and that of some of my friends *sigh*) on a day to day basis, like Krissy does in her job. But it still gets pretty depressing to have to engage with the bad economic news and its possible repercussions day after day after day.
@MadLibrarian: I lived out in Xenia for a while too. Missed the ’74 attack but there’s been enough tornado incidents out that way when I lived there to make me rather glad to have escaped over to Eagle territory.
@John: I hope that you and Athena gave Krissy a good Mother’s day to fortify her for today’s insanity.
That was no tornado, that was a hurkin’ hurrikin’. Reminds me of Florida from 2004-2006.