Star is without internets for a bit~
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- Ancient Dragon
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Star is without internets for a bit~
Star's area got hit by the inland hurricane that central illinois. D: she's fine, but her area has been deemed a Disaster Area, and will be without power until wendsday, and possibly longer. She's fine, and her apartment is fine, but the town is apparently a mess. She's going up to her parent's in the meantime, but she said she probably wouldn't be able to get on the internet much, if at all. D: So yes. Hopefully she'll be back soon, though. [/list]
Oh jeez! 
I saw that on yahoo news, and I keep wondering who all I might know through the internets that is affected by stuff like that
Send her hugs!
I saw that on yahoo news, and I keep wondering who all I might know through the internets that is affected by stuff like that Send her hugs!
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StarFyre
- Ancient Dragon
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Well, now that I'm safely at my parent's house, and away from the total destruction that's down in Carbondale right now... I think I'll take this moment of calm (before the visting, reassuring in person, and all that starts to happen in earnest) to give y'all a bit of a personal account of the devestation that happened down there.
First off, I'd like to say, we had about ten, fifteen minutes warning that something THAT nasty was heading our way. Most of us thought the rain/hail was just another typical midwestern storm - something to be wary of and stay near a basement for, but nothing on THAT level of power.
What most of the news and such won't tell you, it that before this storm hit, we'd basically been rained on since the night before, mixed with hail at some times. The night before, me'n the roomies were sitting around talking (Joe and I had just come back from watching the StarTrek movie, and two of the other roomies plus a friend were playing Baldur's Gate) and we started to notice a lot of lightning right on top of us. Being the paranoid geeks that my fiance and I are, we started to unplug all our electronics immediately, and when I went upstairs to get the desktop... well, it started to sound like a troope from Riverdance were practicing on the roof. When we all looked outside, there were marble-sized hailstones falling -- and when I say marble size, I mean the shooter marbles, not those sissy little ones.
My roomie Dave looks outside, looks at us, looks outside, and goes, "Guys, can I keep my motorcycle inside tonight?" We all look at each other, then go, "Get the cycle, we'll clear a spot." A handful of minutes later, at the end of the pushing and shoving to get the cycle over the stoop and inside, our entryway is crowded with cycle and our apartment smells of leather, metal, and oil (not exhaust, thank gods, because the cycle hadn't been run for days before this, and just got washed in a downpour). Nice smell.
The next morning around 9, the sky is cloudy but it's not raining. So I take off for my last final. Around 10:30, it starts to rain, then hail, complete with more thunder and lightning. We get warned to stick close to campus when we're done - there's tornado watches in effect.
So I finish my final and run the couple of feet in the open to the student center, where I sit down to start writing a paper due later that day. A while later, around 1 or so, the wind starts picking up. And by picking up, I mean howling, trying to pry doors open, making the huge floor-to-ceiling windows I'm sitting near FLEX in and out. Fun experience there. The tornado sirens go off. Briefly. I'm still trying to figure out what went wrong there, because the sirens on campus went off, but nowhere else... I'm actually wondering if that initial wind-burst didn't kill a couple of tornado sirens immediately.
Next thing I hear, the building manager is on the intercomm telling us to get down to the basement ASAP. Now, outside the windows all around me, I see... nothing. Well, incorrect, I see completely horizontal rain/hail, mixed with the green of shredded leaves. I can't see the trees not three feet from the windows though the mess.
Two minutes after we all get down into the basement, the power goes out. Luckily, we're right next to the craftshop, so they start bringing candles out.
And that's about the end of my knowledge of the storm, cept for the aftermath, because the student center basement is practically a bombshelter for all you're aware of the outside world while in it. My fiance, on the other hand, got to sit in the apartment through the entire thing, as he felt the pressure change repeatedly, heard trees snap, and got to listen to the howl of the wind.
Now, aftermath.
Within a minute of walking outside, I saw four downed trees, rootball and all, one of which had fallen on one of those green boxes full of wires, another which had taken out a metal lightpost and blocked off the path to the next building, another of which further blocked the path, and the fourth which fell harmlessly to the ground. I also saw two shattered trees, limbs ripped off, tops snapped and tossed aside...
In the end, as I walked home, I saw multiple downed power lines, trees upon trees upon trees ripped to shreds, signs busted, windows shattered, roofs missing, roads blocked...
And the power was out. Everwhere.
There is not a place left in Carbondale or either of the nearby towns that have power. Best estimates on power is that by Tuesday evening most people should be back on... Wednesday or Thursday at the latest.
Very few deaths - I think there's only one reported storm-death so far - but a lot of scared people. Because it was the Friday of finals week, it was also move-out day, so a bunch of people were moving out of the dorms, three of which are 17 floor towers. Yeah. People got caught in the elevators.
The only places with power, still, are places that dragged generators out and hooked them up. The school itself is still running on essential personel only (which means they have no power beyond what little the school coal-plant can provide itself).
So that's my grand adventure in disaster-land. I'm not going to be on that much this week, more than likely, but I am still alive, just a tidge shaken.
First off, I'd like to say, we had about ten, fifteen minutes warning that something THAT nasty was heading our way. Most of us thought the rain/hail was just another typical midwestern storm - something to be wary of and stay near a basement for, but nothing on THAT level of power.
What most of the news and such won't tell you, it that before this storm hit, we'd basically been rained on since the night before, mixed with hail at some times. The night before, me'n the roomies were sitting around talking (Joe and I had just come back from watching the StarTrek movie, and two of the other roomies plus a friend were playing Baldur's Gate) and we started to notice a lot of lightning right on top of us. Being the paranoid geeks that my fiance and I are, we started to unplug all our electronics immediately, and when I went upstairs to get the desktop... well, it started to sound like a troope from Riverdance were practicing on the roof. When we all looked outside, there were marble-sized hailstones falling -- and when I say marble size, I mean the shooter marbles, not those sissy little ones.
My roomie Dave looks outside, looks at us, looks outside, and goes, "Guys, can I keep my motorcycle inside tonight?" We all look at each other, then go, "Get the cycle, we'll clear a spot." A handful of minutes later, at the end of the pushing and shoving to get the cycle over the stoop and inside, our entryway is crowded with cycle and our apartment smells of leather, metal, and oil (not exhaust, thank gods, because the cycle hadn't been run for days before this, and just got washed in a downpour). Nice smell.
The next morning around 9, the sky is cloudy but it's not raining. So I take off for my last final. Around 10:30, it starts to rain, then hail, complete with more thunder and lightning. We get warned to stick close to campus when we're done - there's tornado watches in effect.
So I finish my final and run the couple of feet in the open to the student center, where I sit down to start writing a paper due later that day. A while later, around 1 or so, the wind starts picking up. And by picking up, I mean howling, trying to pry doors open, making the huge floor-to-ceiling windows I'm sitting near FLEX in and out. Fun experience there. The tornado sirens go off. Briefly. I'm still trying to figure out what went wrong there, because the sirens on campus went off, but nowhere else... I'm actually wondering if that initial wind-burst didn't kill a couple of tornado sirens immediately.
Next thing I hear, the building manager is on the intercomm telling us to get down to the basement ASAP. Now, outside the windows all around me, I see... nothing. Well, incorrect, I see completely horizontal rain/hail, mixed with the green of shredded leaves. I can't see the trees not three feet from the windows though the mess.
Two minutes after we all get down into the basement, the power goes out. Luckily, we're right next to the craftshop, so they start bringing candles out.
And that's about the end of my knowledge of the storm, cept for the aftermath, because the student center basement is practically a bombshelter for all you're aware of the outside world while in it. My fiance, on the other hand, got to sit in the apartment through the entire thing, as he felt the pressure change repeatedly, heard trees snap, and got to listen to the howl of the wind.
Now, aftermath.
Within a minute of walking outside, I saw four downed trees, rootball and all, one of which had fallen on one of those green boxes full of wires, another which had taken out a metal lightpost and blocked off the path to the next building, another of which further blocked the path, and the fourth which fell harmlessly to the ground. I also saw two shattered trees, limbs ripped off, tops snapped and tossed aside...
In the end, as I walked home, I saw multiple downed power lines, trees upon trees upon trees ripped to shreds, signs busted, windows shattered, roofs missing, roads blocked...
And the power was out. Everwhere.
There is not a place left in Carbondale or either of the nearby towns that have power. Best estimates on power is that by Tuesday evening most people should be back on... Wednesday or Thursday at the latest.
Very few deaths - I think there's only one reported storm-death so far - but a lot of scared people. Because it was the Friday of finals week, it was also move-out day, so a bunch of people were moving out of the dorms, three of which are 17 floor towers. Yeah. People got caught in the elevators.
The only places with power, still, are places that dragged generators out and hooked them up. The school itself is still running on essential personel only (which means they have no power beyond what little the school coal-plant can provide itself).
So that's my grand adventure in disaster-land. I'm not going to be on that much this week, more than likely, but I am still alive, just a tidge shaken.
Holy cats. *hugs* I am glad you're okay, and I guess your place is okay too - that's good.
.... See, this is why I like living in an earthquake area, and not a tornado zone...
.... See, this is why I like living in an earthquake area, and not a tornado zone...
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Yakima
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Glad you're okay. Minnesotans are pretty lucky in the tornado department. We don't get many. Blizzards, perhaps, but not many tornadoes. I like storms - until everything turns green. 
~ Weyrwoman Yakima of Isla Weyr
Isla Weyr: http://www.isla.mage-circle.com
Velare Isle: http://www.velare.mage-circle.com
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Alair WolfKeep
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Velare Isle: http://www.velare.mage-circle.com
Treval Dragonry: http://www.treval.mage-circle.com
Alair WolfKeep
The Last Oddessy: http://www.last-oddessy.mage-circle.com
Baskar Castle: http://www.baskar.mage-circle.com
World of Sentra: http://www.sentra.mage-circle.com
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StarFyre
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Shard: Well if you want to be TECHNICAL, I am living in an earthquake zone, being as there's a fault-line not half an hour away from Carbondale (the New Madrid fault-line, I believe). =P See? Earthquake zone!
Yakima: Tornados being the hit-and-miss that they are, and Illinois being so much farmland and so little town, tornados usually hit fields, maybe some barns, etc. Those don't make the news though, just the tornados that wipe out entire towns (like Utica back a couple years ago, I believe was the town that got leveled not that far from my parents' house).
Maer: It wasn't so much the two twisters that touched down as the 90 MPH winds with gusts up to 110 MPH. Nasty stuff. That and the hail. The scary part is that that part of the storm was supposed to cycle back around and hit us a second time about two hours later. Luckily, it didn't, or else a LOT worse would have happened.
Dray: From what I've heard, and what I know about the storm in general, power went out two minutes after the storm really hit, and it lasted about a half hour after that point. So add in the time required to find, hunt down, and connect generators to the three towers, and it probably took an hour from start to finish to get those people back up and running again. That, and on Sunday, while walking to Trueblood (school dining hall that was open providing food to students/faculty/staff still on campus), Joe and I noticed that a LOT of the huge floor-to-ceiling windows in the towers were boarded up, so gods know where that glass fell...
Lilu: I guess in retrospect it was a bit awesome, to have survived and witnessed that sort of devastation, but at the time it was mostly shocking, to see so much just... destroyed or torn up and thrown about, all of it stuff I was accustomed to looking for/at. The property damage down there is incredible. Not two blocks from our apartment, the elementary school is missing its roof. Some apartments are missing siding, the hole-in-the-wall apartments a block or two from the school are pretty much rubble from the rumors I've heard (two or three trees smashed through the roof and caved great holes in the buildings). Anyway...
In other news, Joe and I are planning to head back down to Carbondale on Wednesday, because the school has power back which means he has to be back ASAP. Neither of us have any idea as to whether or not our apartment has power back (supposedly, the power company has slowly gotten more and more pessimistic about how long it'll take to get the city back online, as they keep finding more and more lines that are downed, damaged, stressed, or whatnot). So, if I don't have power at home, I'll probably be hanging out at the Student Center a lot to keep my laptop charged and going... We do have a camp burner/stove-thing now, so we have a way to cook and boil water, and we'll get things like noodles and sauce to eat at dinner, and rely on campus for lunch if it gets to that.
So, no idea when I'll actually be back-back, but that's the update so far.
Yakima: Tornados being the hit-and-miss that they are, and Illinois being so much farmland and so little town, tornados usually hit fields, maybe some barns, etc. Those don't make the news though, just the tornados that wipe out entire towns (like Utica back a couple years ago, I believe was the town that got leveled not that far from my parents' house).
Maer: It wasn't so much the two twisters that touched down as the 90 MPH winds with gusts up to 110 MPH. Nasty stuff. That and the hail. The scary part is that that part of the storm was supposed to cycle back around and hit us a second time about two hours later. Luckily, it didn't, or else a LOT worse would have happened.
Dray: From what I've heard, and what I know about the storm in general, power went out two minutes after the storm really hit, and it lasted about a half hour after that point. So add in the time required to find, hunt down, and connect generators to the three towers, and it probably took an hour from start to finish to get those people back up and running again. That, and on Sunday, while walking to Trueblood (school dining hall that was open providing food to students/faculty/staff still on campus), Joe and I noticed that a LOT of the huge floor-to-ceiling windows in the towers were boarded up, so gods know where that glass fell...
Lilu: I guess in retrospect it was a bit awesome, to have survived and witnessed that sort of devastation, but at the time it was mostly shocking, to see so much just... destroyed or torn up and thrown about, all of it stuff I was accustomed to looking for/at. The property damage down there is incredible. Not two blocks from our apartment, the elementary school is missing its roof. Some apartments are missing siding, the hole-in-the-wall apartments a block or two from the school are pretty much rubble from the rumors I've heard (two or three trees smashed through the roof and caved great holes in the buildings). Anyway...
In other news, Joe and I are planning to head back down to Carbondale on Wednesday, because the school has power back which means he has to be back ASAP. Neither of us have any idea as to whether or not our apartment has power back (supposedly, the power company has slowly gotten more and more pessimistic about how long it'll take to get the city back online, as they keep finding more and more lines that are downed, damaged, stressed, or whatnot). So, if I don't have power at home, I'll probably be hanging out at the Student Center a lot to keep my laptop charged and going... We do have a camp burner/stove-thing now, so we have a way to cook and boil water, and we'll get things like noodles and sauce to eat at dinner, and rely on campus for lunch if it gets to that.
So, no idea when I'll actually be back-back, but that's the update so far.