917 One Side! One Side!

A tornado passed within a mile of my undisclosed location Thursday night. It cut a long path of destruction that included a power substation that supplied electricity to a huge area. No one was seriously injured, thank goodness. There was some substantial property damage, many destroyed power lines, and several trees twisted into splinters. I never actually heard or saw anything out of the ordinary for any run of the mill thunderstorm. Unfortunately, when the power was cut, I lost access to most of my weather watching resources. Usually if the power goes down here the signal tower stays working, so I can keep getting updates until the backups power down. This time the power was cut for the tower, so I had power, but no signal. The storm passed by 3AM. With no power for miles and miles around the light pollution for the entire area was completely dissipated. For the first time in years I saw the sky in total darkness, apart from occasional flashes of lightning. Stars upon stars stretching away infinitely. It’s almost impossible to see the sky that way now. It takes a disaster.

Without power I was at loose ends for the entire day. There was no way to purchase gas. Against all odds the locals did not deteriorate into roving bands of hooligans shaking down travelers for “juice”. Everyone seemed to be opperating under the impression that local businesses had backup generators. This is resoundingly not the case. Even Wal-Mart, beast that does not sleep, was shuttered. I too was left to my own devices. Ironically, the better part of my devices require power to function, so little of value was accomplished. As electronics began to fail I meted out portions of saved electricity to them. My backups can only power a computer for a few minutes, but they can charge smaller things for significantly longer. I was able to entertain myself, althought it felt more like wasted time than a vacation. Generally speaking I’m happier if I’m working, even if it doesn’t seem that way.

Power was restored a little after sundown. It felt like it was much later since I actually experienced the slide into darkness, but the whole evening stretched out before me. I didn’t fall behind on the most important comic duties at any rate.

Thanks for all the various tips on Friday’s blog. I appreciate the feedback. The data on that drive isn’t worth spending money to save. If I can’t get it working I may crack the thing open just to see what the inside actually looks like, since it’s lost either way. If it can’t be salvaged I’m definitely going to scatter it to the four winds.

15 Comments

Dang, Mike’s plan is almost foolproof. He, Brooksie, and Nina will be in contention for the as-yet-unnamed prize.

Your basic scale for tornadic damages: (offical one is the enhanced Fujita scale)
F0some trees missing branches, house shakes, may rip off a few shingles
F1 Roofs blown off houses, trees downed, cars flipped
F2 Brick buildings damaged, all window types sundered, trees uprooted
F3 Cars and debris twisted aroud remaining structures, frames and support structures remain intact.
F4 Cement basements intact, everything else tossed about but still identifiable
F5 Large scale Debris everywhere, looks like after a carpet bombing, sans craters, no structure left standing
F5+ Gone, hard to measure as nothing remains

So based on that I’d estimate a localized F3.

Although the NWS wouldn’t know until they actually did an aerial survey. While I concur that it’s probably somewhere in the EF-2 to EF-4 range (“F0” is from the old system), tornadic strength can vary and it also depends on how sturdy that structure was to begin with anyway.

According to the weather.gov website, if I’m correct, the NWS has already determined the tornado was an EF-2. Another tornado in a relatively close county was determined to be EF-0. The EF-2 caused one injury, while the EF-0 caused six.

My town was hit by an F5 last year. The way they calculated it was that a certain building in the path of the tornado was built to withstand F4s. Since it was demolished, they upgraded the tornado to F5.

Reggie is now up against three more people who hate him. He knows they hate him. I can tell, he knows, he just thinks it’s jealousy.

They’re going to dart the hell out of him.

Four, actually…. If you go back to when John ran into Nina, Nina’s converted soldier Ed was lingering nearby, just in case…

The Stage is SET!!

Flashes of scenes from Tombstone, High Noon, Aliens, Star Wars and a dozen other films just buzzed by in my mind’s eye! WooHOOOO!! I can see it coming!!

For a great capper, how about something along the lines of the final scene from Unforgiven? After these guys run out of ammo, maybe Carol can stride in with the killer grimace and coldly lay waste o’er the land!!

They’re all gonna be screwed if somebody from corporate ever thinks to look at the security footage for this day…

I think @Derrath has foreshadowed the eventual outcome — I foresee Ed’s marvelous revenge against Reggie for past sins…

Ahahahaha…

The “Most Wanted” and his minion were accidentally lured into a situation where they are outnumbered and outgunned!

I had wondered if Mike’s build was deliberate or not. Some guys are always a bit overweight, but since he was on the store’s build team, I figured there was quite a bit of muscle under the chub. Lowered center of balance like that tends to mean greater core strength, which is good for lifting and supports the back and legs while running. Thing is, all we see in mainstream media is the bodybuilder look, which sacrifices strength and functionality for aesthetics by narrowing the waist and widening the shoulders disproportionately.

I’ve seen a couple tornadoes touch down, but only offshore to create waterspouts. I’m told that they sound like a shrieking circular saw when they get close, and a passing train when distant. That right?

No, don’t scatter the bad drive! (In principle, not in a time-travel sense.) An old hard drive makes a wonderful clock, if you figure out how to drill out the center of it. Then just glue the platters back in place, mount a movement from hobby store whatsit. Instant cool clock!

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