Monday, March 12, 2007

Outbreak, For Rizzle

Some uncomfortable moments Monday during an orientation session for a tornado drill we're having Tuesday (Not much of a drill if you're warned about it, eh?)....

During a faculty meeting today, we watched a training video, which featured reenactments of people taking cover from storms in several locations. In slo-mo, people huddled beneath steps or in bathrooms. One dude even hunkered down in a roadside ditch when he saw a tornado from his car.

Pause for a Youtube interlude...



Anyway, I remembered something that I haven't experienced since I saw "Twister" in 19-whatever: That scenes of people taking shelter when a killer storm is bearing down on them makes me really squirmy.

I attribute this to having spent what seemed like a really long time huddled with my family underneath a pool table in our basement on April 4, 1974 - the "Super Outbreak" of tornadoes across the Midwest. Check out the map above; a couple of the damned things came sort of close to where I grew up in Northern Kentucky. One devastated the county seat of the place where The Mayor grew up.

Warning: "Super Outbreak," not to be confused with Super Breakout, a lame-ass video game, or "Outbreak," the lame-ass Dustin Hoffman movie.

Posted by Unclejbird @ 6:13 PM