Driving through DQ tonight for dinner (hey, the chicken isn't bad), I decided to get a mini blizzard of a new flavor to try it. Maybe half of it was what I was planning on eating. When it comes out to me, it's huge. I say "That's really big for a mini." They said "Oh, I thought you wanted a medium". Drive-thru girl is replaced by drive-thru guy, who two minutes later hands me out another giant blizzard. "I already have my mini turned maxi blizzard". He is stumped. Can't figure out what to do with his. So he just shrugs and hands it to me anyway. I now have two huge blizzards and nobody to eat them. They're sitting in my freezer right now if anybody wants a peanut butter cookie dough blizzard. Size-too-big.
Also, before I get to the part you already know, Kaylee's school pictures came back. These are cell phone snapshots of them emailed to myself, so the quality is less than stellar, but it gives you an idea anyway.
So, you might have heard, Kokomo got hit with some unpleasant weather. It started off looking like a totally normal afternoon. I had two students that afternoon so had been watching that line of storms all day. As far as I could tell, it was just a normal line of storms. Yawn. I figured it would be through in time for my 6 pm guy but not my 4 pm guy. I have exactly one hour before I'm supposed to do something, so I turn the TV on "On Demand" to watch a show not on network tv. I'm sitting there maybe 5 minutes, and my phone starts shrieking with an alarm. Tornado warning, seek shelter immediately. Yeah, right, think I. Here they go again overblowing this stuff. Then the sirens go off. I pull up the regular TV, and I'm watching, and it says "Tornado spotted by Frankfort heading right for Kokomo." Oops. I shut down the computer, the TV, and then the power went out. Well, that's not a good sign. I went over to Ann's, and we got a flashlight, the lantern, the basement lights on, etc., and then I ran back home to let the cats into the house. I figured their chances were a lot better hiding under our couch than sitting in a box on the deck. We spent some time in the basement waiting for that cell to move through, as I tried to keep up on my iPad. Right about then my 4 pm student said "Wanna go fly? HAHA" and My 6 pm guy said "Well, because of the bad weather, my family's schedule is goofed up and I'm probably going to have to cancel our 6 pm". I wrote back "Since I'm sitting in our basement while a tornado goes by while I type this, I'm guessing we won't be flying anyway regardless of your schedule." He didn't know what it was doing in Kokomo.
There was round after round of warning and storm. For awhile I sat in the car, to charge my phone and listen to the radio. They were calling out "Another funnel spotted here" and "Another funnel touching down here" for what felt like forever. Later learned the NWS claims 12 tornadoes in Indiana. The worst one we got was an EF-3, and it went right through town. Again. It took out the Starbucks completely flattened, the county "retirement facility" was severely damaged, an entire group of apartment buildings was condemned, grain bins, and sadly a neighborhood that got nailed last tornado too. There was tree damage and home damage in a swatch across the city and out to within just about a mile or two of Kokomo Airport. I was up flying today, traced over the damage, and you could clearly see the path of the tornado in all the flattened corn and string of debris. It's a bit of a mess.
That tornado came with almost no warning. No idea it was coming. So Steve was out at Eastern to pick up Kaylee when his phone went off with the alert. He called me and we figured out where he could go. She was locked in at the school, and he ran south to get out of the path. When he finally did get to pick her up, it took them over 2 hours to get home. The tornado had taken out power all across the city, and blown down trees and debris into roads. So one road after the other was blocked off, traffic was at a standstill on the main roads, and he couldn't find a way home for a long time. He tried it from every direction before finally being successful. There were 18 downed power lines on Park Rd by our house. The tornado came through the country club, right by our end of the park. It was close. I'm grateful that it missed us and the airports.
We were, however, without power. Normally we're not, due to our location by the station, but this time with all those down lines...but we figured we'd be up pretty quickly. It was hot, muggy, dark and quiet in the house, and I was surprised to wake up in the morning and still not have power. So we went out to the airport and picked up two of our Oshkosh generators. Side note. Jon and Steve were loading them, full of fuel. Jon said "But you'll need help unloading these at home." Steve said "Nah, Laura and I can do it." Jon said "But these are really heavy." Steve says "Yes, they are, but have you seen her lift stuff? We'll be fine." And so we were. They weren't that bad. That old TV we had was WAY worse than those generators, and some of the furniture we've moved, too. Piece of cake. ;)
Steve didn't have quite the right cords, so we just plugged the two generators into each of our houses, to the refrigerator, to protect our food. We'd not been opening and shutting the doors, so everything stayed cool till then. He went out, got what he needed, came back and was hooking everything up, shutting power down to the house, feeding the generator in to the main area, got it all done, and his Mom walked outside and said "Power's back up". For a second he thought he'd done something terribly wrong and fed over to her house without intending to or something, but then realized...the power was back up. All that work and NOW the power comes back up. We were without power for about 25/26 hours in total. That's a long time for our area. So we packed the generators back up, and today took them back out to Kokomo.
The city is already running again. For awhile the main roads were parking lots as people had no stop lights so used each one like a four-way-stop. Several roads are still shut down, and there is so much damage to fix up across the city, in personal homes and businesses. Power is still out for about 12,000 people, including a couple of our airport friends. I am thankful to be sitting under a light in air conditioning today. I spent the day like any Friday. Flight lessons and lunch and laundry and picking up the kid. Kokomo rebuilt after the flood that made it an emergency disaster area. It rebuilt after the 2011 tornado that took out much of the same area. And it'll rebuild again. I didn't take any photos--from what I've seen, there are already a ton of them out there. Here's what I wrote on Facebook about it since it's good to see the good, too.
I feel like I am at Oshkosh as I sit here listening to airplanes that keep flying overhead and a couple of generators run during the middle of the day. As you may guess, that means we still don't have power. But everywhere I've gone today, I have seen hordes of Duke energy trucks running everywhere. They are doing a great job getting people back up and running as fast as they can. Now I've been isolated as far as TV, so I hope the media is showing what I've seen so far. Because here's what's more important to me. When that Starbucks was flattened, there were customers and employees all crowded into the two shelter-safe bathrooms. Those two rooms were the only thing left standing. A waiter from the Chili's next door and an unidentified man ran over when they saw the building collapse and started digging down immediately to get people out. Menards didn't have power but they ran generators and opened their doors late last night so people could come get emergency supplies. Sam's Club opened as soon as they got power this morning and offered to sell their gas, food and supplies to anyone, member or not. There are no stoplights working on most of the main thoroughfares, and it is a parking lot. But cars are not trying to push through and run the lights. They are treating each one like a four way stop, nobody pushing, nobody honking, nobody trying to blow through there. Teachers sang songs with elementary children huddled under tables as the tornado damaged their school, keeping everyone feeling calm and safe. Teens in town did not have school today, and on their own, got together at 1 PM and met at the school in order to organize and go out and help with cleanup and anything else they could. There were isolated instances of B&E last night in an area, but the overwhelming number of people are standing up and reaching out. I haven't heard whining or victimology, just "we're ok, now how can we help?" Thanks Kokomo.
Here's one article about a guy who organized helpers, too. Here's a video of some damage as seen from the air. And this Facebook page has been a huuge source of information and support for people in the middle of the storms and ever since. It's like two guys in their house doing this, and it's been a big blessing.
A guy named Chris got together with Steve and wrote up an article about Kaylee and I. Kaylee read it and said "I said YOU weren't normal, I didn't say *I* wasn't normal". I said "No, but you're not normal." She says "No, but I'm not normal in a different way then you're not normal." And that's okay too. ;) If you haven't seen it, here's the article. I thought he did a nice job with it. It'll come out in the EAA magazine too, next issue, which is neat. I was thinking I could have used a photo that was a little less messed up on the old hair, sweaty, messy, etc., and then I thought...nah. That's what I look like on a hot day in a T-6. Deal with it, people. Supermodel I ain't. ;)
So we're all alive and well. I've been called, texed, PMd, emailed, and Facebooked from lots of family and friends around the country, appreciate the concern, and we're doing fine. :)
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