Storms, weird weather, and blackouts

I was going to write about a night I ended up playing drunken darts, but with all the crazy stormy weather we've had here this weekend it got me thinking about weird weather and power outages at school.

Not exactly in Tornado Alley, eastern Iowa is by no means immune to stormy weather. Or windy weather, or snow storms. The only thing, ironically, we weren't worried about was flooding. On the top of the hill, if we were flooded, the rest of the area was in big trouble.

And it wasn't just the storms it was what happened during and after them. It wasn't uncommon for internet service to be suspect and spotty after a storm in the region, and the power was known to flicker (but more on that later). I remember one ugly storm in particular from May of my sophomore year. I was supposed to be packing up my room, getting ready to leave. Instead, we were watching the stormtrackers and listening to the tornado sirens go off. We tromped downstairs to see if we were required to head to the creepy and quite possibly haunted stone, above ground basement. We were none too fond of it. We got down to the informal lounge and saw a gaggle of girls hanging out, wandering out onto the porch to watch the sky turn green. And then scrambling back in as the hail came. That reaction is consistently the same. Alarms go off, warnings are issued, and we go run outside to look at the sky. I'm not even sure I know where we were really supposed to go in case of a storm the last 2 years I was there. We all just ended up congregating in the hallway of the lowest level, usually still doing homework.

Senior year, Alice managed to cut her leg pretty decently moving in early. I got a call from Stacy asking me to come over and convince her to go to get stitches (mostly because my mom was a nurse, making me an "expert," partly because it would make it 4-1 majority). We convince her that a trip to the emergency room would be a good idea, so the 5 of us pile into the car and drive the 25 mins to the nearest hospital. Of course it had started to rain on the way there, and by the time we hit the emergency room it was looking awfully dark. They take Alice back and the rest of us get comfortable in the waiting room, only to have the sirens go off for a Severe Thunderstorm warning. They hustle us back to the surgery waiting room where we proceed to annoy the rest of the occupants with our giggles, mostly related to the fact that we all had left our windows wide open at school. After about 45 mins, the warning expires and we realize we need to get out of there before the next wave of warnings keep s there all night long. Thankfully Alice gets released and we book it to the car getting drenched in the process. On the way home, someone made the comment that is seemed an awful lot like a bad horror movie: four girls and one guy crammed into a little car on an empty highway surrounded by cornfields on a dark and stormy night. That got us giggling (albeit a little nervously) again.

And there were the infamous blackouts. Sometimes storm induced, sometimes not. Thankfully the 2, I was privy to were during warm weather. With such a small campus, when one building didn’t have power, none of them did. During the first blackout, each little area ending up with their own little event. The tri-dorm area brought out the bongo drums and dancing. Merner-Olin staged a game of flashlight tag. I have no idea what the freshman dorms were doing. Something entertaining and crazy I’m sure. I ended up on the swing out front watching the flashlight tag. The next time I was supposed to be doing homework, so I had camped out in the hallway reading by emergency lights. Next thing I know, Ryan comes wandering down the hall with beers in hand, commenting with the power out, we’d better drink them. I try to explain that unlike some other things, bottled beer will not go bad if it gets warm. But who am I to argue. About 5 of us end up in Alice’s room drinking with the door open to let the emergency lights provide ambiance.

What fun weather or blackout stories do you remember? Don’t even get me started on the no water issues!! Although it meant interesting food for dinner with no dishwasher ☺

Stories, story ideas, and suggestions always welcome! See the email in the sidebar.