Tornadoes, June 2011 - I am awestruck and worried
Is it better to know about a crisis as it's happening and breathe a sigh of relief when you've survived, or go through your day having no idea what's going on, and find out about the devastation later?
My day was mainly spent playing Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines in my diningroom-turned-bedroom, and aside from a decently impressive hailstorm around 4:30 that eventually knocked out the power, we didn't see much out of the ordinary.
Sure, we'd heard vague word of a tornado warning, back when it was still sunny and blue-skied, and our verizon phones were out of service (though they did tell us when we got voicemail, because Dad's mother called us upwards of five times while we couldn't answer her), there was spectacular lightning in the still-lit and kinda weird-colored sky, and the road was flooded on the way back from dinner...
When we got home, we lit candles and talked for a bit, then saw our neighbors come home and invited them over. Only then did we learn that the local grocery got its roof torn off, the church lost its steeple, and a swath of area between our place and downtown was utterly wrecked.
I think I need to start watching the news.
I feel really awkward about this. I dunno if I should; I mean, we got lucky. Happens. Other people also got incredibly unlucky. We drove around to survey the damage; downtown is a mess, lots of houses got blasted, whole lengths of forests are now horizontal... I'm not sure how many people died.
That's the thing about tornadoes: there can be this horrific damage in one area, and next to it, nothing. We live in the 'nothing' part and I am grateful.
And then I get the urge to post a photo album entitled LOOK AT ALL THE BULLETS WE DODGED and I just... feel crass.
What's also interesting, from a film student perspective, is how we're inured to this kind of thing, often because we're shielded by the camera.
I'm not explaining that well. I'll try to come up with something more cohesive later. Right now I'm in the library of the next town over (because ours got the windows blown out. Apparently people were there when it happened, and the director managed to get everyone into the bathrooms or the stone foundation, either way, safe. Kudos.) and I can't upload photos anyway.
Our house power should be back tonight. In the meantime, the six of us are using water from the pool and a local spring to do things like brush our teeth, flush the toilets. It's an adventure, especially for M the exchange student, who's probably never had to deal with lack of electricity. Poor kid got to experience all kinds of weather this year ^^;
But man. Lot of damage. Reinforces my hind-brain fear that we're too dependent on technology. And when we were guessing what could have brought a tornado to the eastern seaboard, I piped up, "The Rapture?" I'm ashamed to say, I'm still thinking "What if."
Speaking of the Rapture, this makes me smile bitterly:
Oh, BEFORE I FORGET: I'm looking into buying a Mac Book Pro because my 4-year-old PC is on its last legs. Can anyone give me a recommendation as to different models and if there are any other vendors besides the Mac store?
My day was mainly spent playing Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines in my diningroom-turned-bedroom, and aside from a decently impressive hailstorm around 4:30 that eventually knocked out the power, we didn't see much out of the ordinary.
Sure, we'd heard vague word of a tornado warning, back when it was still sunny and blue-skied, and our verizon phones were out of service (though they did tell us when we got voicemail, because Dad's mother called us upwards of five times while we couldn't answer her), there was spectacular lightning in the still-lit and kinda weird-colored sky, and the road was flooded on the way back from dinner...
When we got home, we lit candles and talked for a bit, then saw our neighbors come home and invited them over. Only then did we learn that the local grocery got its roof torn off, the church lost its steeple, and a swath of area between our place and downtown was utterly wrecked.
I think I need to start watching the news.
I feel really awkward about this. I dunno if I should; I mean, we got lucky. Happens. Other people also got incredibly unlucky. We drove around to survey the damage; downtown is a mess, lots of houses got blasted, whole lengths of forests are now horizontal... I'm not sure how many people died.
That's the thing about tornadoes: there can be this horrific damage in one area, and next to it, nothing. We live in the 'nothing' part and I am grateful.
And then I get the urge to post a photo album entitled LOOK AT ALL THE BULLETS WE DODGED and I just... feel crass.
What's also interesting, from a film student perspective, is how we're inured to this kind of thing, often because we're shielded by the camera.
I'm not explaining that well. I'll try to come up with something more cohesive later. Right now I'm in the library of the next town over (because ours got the windows blown out. Apparently people were there when it happened, and the director managed to get everyone into the bathrooms or the stone foundation, either way, safe. Kudos.) and I can't upload photos anyway.
Our house power should be back tonight. In the meantime, the six of us are using water from the pool and a local spring to do things like brush our teeth, flush the toilets. It's an adventure, especially for M the exchange student, who's probably never had to deal with lack of electricity. Poor kid got to experience all kinds of weather this year ^^;
But man. Lot of damage. Reinforces my hind-brain fear that we're too dependent on technology. And when we were guessing what could have brought a tornado to the eastern seaboard, I piped up, "The Rapture?" I'm ashamed to say, I'm still thinking "What if."
Speaking of the Rapture, this makes me smile bitterly:
Oh, BEFORE I FORGET: I'm looking into buying a Mac Book Pro because my 4-year-old PC is on its last legs. Can anyone give me a recommendation as to different models and if there are any other vendors besides the Mac store?