Ah, Gaston
So, after Monday, I got a bunch of calls and emails asking if I was alright after the storm (including one asking if I was dead). And that made me feel all special and loved. So thanks for the concern, y’all. I am doing quite fine, and no one on the campus got seriously injured. I think there were five deaths in Richmond (the city, not the university!) associated with Gaston, which is actually a surprisingly low number, considering the amount of damage that occurred. Anyways, onto my story:
"It looks like it's just about to rain, so you might want to take an umbrella with you when you go to class," I informed my roommate, Catherine, as I got back from my education class around 1:30 on Monday, the 30th. "Okay, thanks for the warning," she replied. As it turned out, the umbrella and the raincoat she donned would prove to be utterly useless. So Catherine is off to classes, and I have a bunch of homework. So I make myself a cup of chai, and sit down at my computer to type my lab report. And it starts to rain. And the rain makes me happy, because I love rain. Then it starts to thunder and lightning. And it gets really windy. Oh well, so much for checking my mail or going to talk to the music department. The thunder and lightning are getting closer and closer together. By this point, my chai has long since been drained, so I get up to the microwave to heat up another cup. Just as I do so, there is a flash of lightning, and the air conditioner stops conditioning, the lights stop lighting, the refrigerator stops refrigerating, the clocks stop clocking, and the microwave stops microwaving. And all around the building can be heard screams and people running and yelling. "Yay!" thinks I, "a blackout! Huzzah!" Then...oh, I have so much work to do. And my computer battery will only last about 15 minutes. And the daylight is quickly fading. Visions of me studying into the wee hours of the morning underneath the red Exit signs fills my head. So I decide to go to the bathroom, because that’s easier than trying to study. But suddenly it occurs to me that maybe the water isn’t working. But, fortunately, that did not turn out to be the case.
Coming back from the bathroom, I hear screaming from outside, and look out the window to see Catherine stumbling up the steps by Gray Court, which had been transformed into Niagara Falls. She told me later that she was saving her flip flops from going down the drain. So she makes it back up to her room. She no longer has her umbrella because the winds blew it inside out and then broke it. She does have on her raincoat, which has probably been more of a hindrance than a help, because the rain has soaked through the entire coat, and she is sopping wet, right down to her underwear.
So after Catherine gets on some dry clothes, we realize that we have ice cream in our freezer. And since the freezer has stopped freezing, our ice cream will soon turn into ice mush. So we recruit Steph and La (the Australian and British girls next to us), and have a little ice cream party. After trying unsuccessfully to check our email and phone messages to see if there was any important info about the storm, Catherine and I, being the two studious girls that we are, get to studying. We have to lie on the floor, near the window, where there is still a little light coming in through the window. We figure this counts towards our "excessive bonding" that we agreed to when we signed the roommate agreement (but that’s another story).
Trees are falling all over campus, the courtyard looks more like a pool than a courtyard, pathways have turned into rivers, streets have turned into oceans, and students are being advised to stay in their dorms. So someone has the brilliant idea that we should go out and get dinner. So Rojo, his roommate Clint (haha, can you get any more southern?), Cat, and I all go out to Famous Daves. Even the three second dash from the dash from the dorm to the car gets me more wet than I usually get in the shower. Driving there, we go through newly formed ponds and rivers, splashing water waaaay up past the side of the car. Running from the car into the restaurant, I lose my flip flop down the river that is the sidewalk. I manage to snatch it up before its certain doom of becoming roadkill.
Dinner was good. I had sweet tea, which was sweet. And pecan (that’s pec-ahhhh-n, not pe-cAn) pie. And Rojo and I made fun of the south, while Clint and Cat made fun of the north. After we finished, the waiter informed us that they were closing parts of 95 (as well as many other highways and roads), but fortunately, we were just going back to campus.
But getting back to campus was the tricky part. The ponds were now deeper, and the rivers faster. We saw a couple accidents. And roads were closed everywhere. We even had a road get closed right in front of us. The police man just backed into traffic, and made everyone turn around. When we finnnnally got near campus, we weren’t able to get in, because almost all the roads leading into campus were closed. So we circled around for a while, wondering if we’d have to spend the night in the car. But we eventually found one road that was open, and got back to our dorms. As it turned out, power had been restored...at least in our dorms (some of the apartments didn't get power back for days!). But the campus network was down, so we couldn't check our campus email, or do any of our class assignments on Blackboard. So, Cat and I just decide to go to bed.
And Richmond, being Richmond, still has classes the next day. Bright and early at 8 AM! I think everything else in the area was closed, but UR doesn't believe in canceling classes.
Walking around campus, I got to see all the destruction. The huge tree outside of D-hall had fallen over. And the one by the Modlin Center. A few cars had been damaged. That poor yellow car is still sitting, mashed up in the D-hall lot. Buildings flooded, apartments had smashed windows. According to the University newspaper, almost 60 trees fell, as well as 12 inches of rain. All the damage was definitely ugly the day after, but the cleanup crews were working nonstop.
Ok, that was way too much writing. If you want to read more, the college newspaper is: http://www.student.richmond.edu/~collegian/ (they should be putting up the most recent issue soon). And there are articles about Gaston’s rampage in the city all over the place, but here’s one from CNN, cause that’s what I have open: http://www.cnn.com/2004/WEATHER/08/31/tropical.storm.ap/index.html Apparently it even ripped up streets.
Now, off to buy an umbrella in preparation for Frances!
"It looks like it's just about to rain, so you might want to take an umbrella with you when you go to class," I informed my roommate, Catherine, as I got back from my education class around 1:30 on Monday, the 30th. "Okay, thanks for the warning," she replied. As it turned out, the umbrella and the raincoat she donned would prove to be utterly useless. So Catherine is off to classes, and I have a bunch of homework. So I make myself a cup of chai, and sit down at my computer to type my lab report. And it starts to rain. And the rain makes me happy, because I love rain. Then it starts to thunder and lightning. And it gets really windy. Oh well, so much for checking my mail or going to talk to the music department. The thunder and lightning are getting closer and closer together. By this point, my chai has long since been drained, so I get up to the microwave to heat up another cup. Just as I do so, there is a flash of lightning, and the air conditioner stops conditioning, the lights stop lighting, the refrigerator stops refrigerating, the clocks stop clocking, and the microwave stops microwaving. And all around the building can be heard screams and people running and yelling. "Yay!" thinks I, "a blackout! Huzzah!" Then...oh, I have so much work to do. And my computer battery will only last about 15 minutes. And the daylight is quickly fading. Visions of me studying into the wee hours of the morning underneath the red Exit signs fills my head. So I decide to go to the bathroom, because that’s easier than trying to study. But suddenly it occurs to me that maybe the water isn’t working. But, fortunately, that did not turn out to be the case.
Coming back from the bathroom, I hear screaming from outside, and look out the window to see Catherine stumbling up the steps by Gray Court, which had been transformed into Niagara Falls. She told me later that she was saving her flip flops from going down the drain. So she makes it back up to her room. She no longer has her umbrella because the winds blew it inside out and then broke it. She does have on her raincoat, which has probably been more of a hindrance than a help, because the rain has soaked through the entire coat, and she is sopping wet, right down to her underwear.
So after Catherine gets on some dry clothes, we realize that we have ice cream in our freezer. And since the freezer has stopped freezing, our ice cream will soon turn into ice mush. So we recruit Steph and La (the Australian and British girls next to us), and have a little ice cream party. After trying unsuccessfully to check our email and phone messages to see if there was any important info about the storm, Catherine and I, being the two studious girls that we are, get to studying. We have to lie on the floor, near the window, where there is still a little light coming in through the window. We figure this counts towards our "excessive bonding" that we agreed to when we signed the roommate agreement (but that’s another story).
Trees are falling all over campus, the courtyard looks more like a pool than a courtyard, pathways have turned into rivers, streets have turned into oceans, and students are being advised to stay in their dorms. So someone has the brilliant idea that we should go out and get dinner. So Rojo, his roommate Clint (haha, can you get any more southern?), Cat, and I all go out to Famous Daves. Even the three second dash from the dash from the dorm to the car gets me more wet than I usually get in the shower. Driving there, we go through newly formed ponds and rivers, splashing water waaaay up past the side of the car. Running from the car into the restaurant, I lose my flip flop down the river that is the sidewalk. I manage to snatch it up before its certain doom of becoming roadkill.
Dinner was good. I had sweet tea, which was sweet. And pecan (that’s pec-ahhhh-n, not pe-cAn) pie. And Rojo and I made fun of the south, while Clint and Cat made fun of the north. After we finished, the waiter informed us that they were closing parts of 95 (as well as many other highways and roads), but fortunately, we were just going back to campus.
But getting back to campus was the tricky part. The ponds were now deeper, and the rivers faster. We saw a couple accidents. And roads were closed everywhere. We even had a road get closed right in front of us. The police man just backed into traffic, and made everyone turn around. When we finnnnally got near campus, we weren’t able to get in, because almost all the roads leading into campus were closed. So we circled around for a while, wondering if we’d have to spend the night in the car. But we eventually found one road that was open, and got back to our dorms. As it turned out, power had been restored...at least in our dorms (some of the apartments didn't get power back for days!). But the campus network was down, so we couldn't check our campus email, or do any of our class assignments on Blackboard. So, Cat and I just decide to go to bed.
And Richmond, being Richmond, still has classes the next day. Bright and early at 8 AM! I think everything else in the area was closed, but UR doesn't believe in canceling classes.
Walking around campus, I got to see all the destruction. The huge tree outside of D-hall had fallen over. And the one by the Modlin Center. A few cars had been damaged. That poor yellow car is still sitting, mashed up in the D-hall lot. Buildings flooded, apartments had smashed windows. According to the University newspaper, almost 60 trees fell, as well as 12 inches of rain. All the damage was definitely ugly the day after, but the cleanup crews were working nonstop.
Ok, that was way too much writing. If you want to read more, the college newspaper is: http://www.student.richmond.edu/~collegian/ (they should be putting up the most recent issue soon). And there are articles about Gaston’s rampage in the city all over the place, but here’s one from CNN, cause that’s what I have open: http://www.cnn.com/2004/WEATHER/08/31/tropical.storm.ap/index.html Apparently it even ripped up streets.
Now, off to buy an umbrella in preparation for Frances!