Walking away is not an option... dialogue must prevail.

"A good listener tries to understand what the other person is saying. In the end he may disagree sharply, but because he disagrees, he wants to know exactly what it is he is disagreeing with."
- Kenneth A. Wells

"I do not want the peace that passeth understanding. I want the understanding which bringeth peace."
- Helen Keller

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

wait, we're not in Kansas...

I've been through thunderstorms before but the one that hit us yesterday afternoon was a doozie.

I was talking to our shipping clerk about having the building's ventilation system checked out and addressing some issues in the area she's in when I looked up behind her and out through her window. I hadn't seen a sky that dark since the sun had set the night before and it was just after 1PM. A truck driver came in at that moment and had a look in his eyes akin to a small boy who has just learned a HUGE secret about the dread math teacher and can't wait to share it with someone. That's when he informed us that he had overhead the calls from first responders about possible tornadoes in an area which turns out is about 25 miles from our plant. And from the look of the sky I figured nothing good was coming our way. (I am now kicking myself for not talking pictures but my emergency coordinator duties got in the way)


After giving our plant security guard instructions on monitoring both our weather station and security cameras, I stood ready to launch the violent storm scenario of our emergency response plan and had our shipping crew take cover. The rains and winds started just as I hung up the phone with him and you couldn't go 5 feet without getting completely soaked.





Luckily, despite the howling winds and massive amounts of rain that fell on us, no one was hurt and we sustained absolutely no damage. PHEW!


Unfortunately, others weren't so lucky and many houses and buildings throughout Quebec were damaged. Thousands are still without electricity this morning. And the violent 75MPH winds overturned 7 trucks on a bridge linking Montreal to it's south shore. Centennial trees were even knocked to the ground.





Man, I sure hope it wasn't because of my new red shoes...



“A thunderstorm is God's way of saying you spend too much time in front of the computer”
- author unknown

20 comments:

Travis Cody said...

Glad everything went ok. We had a nasty wind storm night before last, and it just doesn't seem to want to quit raining.

No tornado or anything, just high winds and rain, with temps in the 50's. We're about 10 degrees cooler than normal around here.

Barbara said...

Salut Anndi,
You are safe and sound and that's the most important. That sounded frightening.
It sounded like you handled everything like a real pro.
Thumbs up !

I have nevr lived through a tornado, but I survived a hurricane in Hawaii a long time ago.That was scary enought.

Take care
xo

Anndi said...

Travis: Thanks bro. Raining near Seattle? NO! Hope the sun comes through soon and warms you up, or just snuggle with Pam and Mr Tucker (which is also real good).

Barbara: It's a relief that despite all the wind and destruction it caused, no one was seriously injured, not even the drivers of the overturned trucks.
I've never experienced an actual tornado much less a hurricane and I'm glad for it.

Hugs

Vinny "Bond" Marini said...

It is scary...We get some violent storms here, but the afternoon when the sirens all were blaring...that was really nerve wracking...

Glad you are safe and no one at the plant got injured.

Jay said...

At my last job our emergency weather response plan was for everyone to panic. It worked perfectly each time we had a huge storm. ;-)

Charles Gramlich said...

A few weeks ago a fellow in my old home town was killed by a wind storm. It's scary how these things can come up. We were without power for something like 12 hours a couple weeks back when a wind storm passed through with violent rains.

Acrimony said...

What is it with weather this summer? Mother Nature is PISSED about something. We have had funnel clouds or tornadoes in the area twice already and had to take cover with the tornado sirens going off. Glad you all were ok.

Akelamalu said...

Crikey and we complain about the weather here! We have it cushy!

Leighann said...

The weather sure has been wonky as of late! We've had some storms that looked promising but didn't end up turing into anything good!

Bud Weiser, WTIT said...

It is rough when you have weather like that. And with all the weather related stuff going on... Glad you are ok!

buffalodick said...

Over the week end we had flash floods in West Michigan- 6 killed in pretty weird situations....

Meribah said...

Hmmm, you might want to consider sending those ruby slippers back where they came from, cuz we're not in Kansas anymore! :P
Glad y'all were fine. Hugs. :)

Ron said...

HOLY COW ANNDI!!!

WOW WEE!

I use to live in Florida, so I'm use to hurricanes...but I've never experienced a tornado. Hurricanes at least give you a warning, however I know that a tornado can come out of nowhere!

Glad to hear your safe and sound!

PHEW is right!

Hey...I LOVE your reference to the ruby slippers!

Very clever!

P.S. I bet you were "clicking" them like crazy!

Lu' said...

I dug the ending to your post :) Glad you are safe.

Sparky Duck said...

I wonder if it was the same storm that made my condo shake at 11pm

Anonymous said...

Wow, how scary is that, I've been hearing about the storms on the news.. I must say I am glad I don't live there or in those areas for that reason only...
I'm just glad your alright...
Hugs'N'Luv,
Lesley

Liz Hill said...

pardon my stupidity but aren't tornadoes unusual that far north?

Karen said...

Weather has been crazy all over. We have downed trees and power outages all over the place from our storm 2 nights ago. Scary.

Unknown said...

Holy Moly! This is gonna sound so VERY retarted, but I did know Canada had tornados!!!! No, I don't get out a lot, and yes, I'm usually fairly intelligent. I guess since I've never heard of it before.....

But man! What is up with these storms this year! About a month ago, we had we had already broke a record for tornados in one season (in America) and we've had many more since. SCARY!

Anonymous said...

There's no place like home
There's no place like home...