A Stormy Birthday

Today is April 5, 2012. I am sitting in the cafe at the Collin College Spring Creek campus cafe, waiting for Stacy to take her math test. Today, the weather is beautiful, sunny, clear, with temperatures in the 70's. There's hardly a cloud in the sky. Today is the exact opposite of Tuesday, the last time we were here at the campus.

Tuesday was my birthday. It was April 3, 2012. It started out like any other day, taking Stacy to school and Jeffrey to work, stuff like that. I was happy that it wasn't hot and sunny. It was actually cloudy with a chance of rain. I picked up Jeff from work and then left to take Stacy to Spring Creek Campus of Collin College in Plano. I take her to her math class there and stay there until her class is over because it's better than racing back and forth since it's about a 30 minute drive. I bring my computer and stay in the cafe there as there is wi-fi and I can sit at a table near an outlet. I've written many blogs in that little cafe. My computer can only go about 30-45 minutes on a charge so I have to bring my power cord and sit near an outlet.

Main Entrance at the Spring Creek campus

One of the artiums at the Spring Creek campus

 It was getting cloudier and looked darker to the south. It was muggy outside. When we got to Spring Creek campus and were walking through the parking lot to the building, I saw dark blue clouds to the south and heard thunder a couple of times. Stacy headed to her class and I headed to the cafe. It was crowded that day. There are a row of tall tables by the windows in the cafe that have outlets by each one of them. There are lower tables closer to the center of the cafe. The tall tables by the windows were all occupied so I had to settle for one of the lower tables and string the cord over to a nearby outlet and had to make sure nobody stumbled on it. I had my headphones on to block out the noise, it gets pretty noisy in there between classes. I noticed one of the tall tables opened-up so I quickly moved my stuff over to it so that I could be right next to the outlet. I had just settled-in when suddenly a mass of students left the cafe. Then one of the campus cops was walking around in the cafe telling everyone to leave. After removing my headphones, I heard the students talking about a tornado warning. Then the cop or secruity guard came over and told me to get my stuff and head to 'B' hall. It took me a couple of minutes to gather my cord, mouse, mouse pad and purse together. I have never been good with touch pads.

I thought, "Seriously, a tornado on my birthday!?" I remember in 1974, the Xenia, Ohio tornado hit on my birthday. It was what is today known as an F-5 that pretty much wiped away most of the town. There were tornado warnings that day in Columbus too, but nothing compared to that one in Xenia. It had something like 26 funnels in it. I remember  a year or two later, taking a field trip with my college Geology class on a big tour bus and the bus driving through Xenia. I remember seeing a piece of straw sticking out of a telephone pole, a remnant of that tornado. I also remember seeing new houses sitting next to what had been the foundation to the old houses that had been destroyed by that tornado. It's one of the things about having a birthday in April, it's during tornado season. My mom said that I was born on a very windy day.

I am not that familiar with the Spring Creek Campus and had absolutely no idea where 'B' hall was so I followed the migrating herd of students. There were profs and campus police guiding the mass of students who were laden with backpacks and computers, down a wide hallway, while telling everyone to stay under the overhang and away from the glass. A lot of glass skylights line the ceilings of the wide hallways and that makes it nice, bright and airy, it's nice except when there's a tornado or the possibility of large hail, then it can be dangerous. The herd stopped in one of those airy hallways under an overhang. I was lucky enough to find a comfortable seat. There are cushioned seats positioned along the center of these hallways.  I asked the campus cop where 'B' hall was and he said it was nearby, but that we were safe where we were. That was fine with me. I pulled out my computer and got on line, then pulled out my cellphone and started texting, along with the students. I texted Jeff, Steve and Stacy. Stacy said she was in 'B' hall. I found that hallway and walked down it, looking for her, but couldn't find her. It was crowded and hot so I decided to return to where I was.  Fortunately, when I returned, my seat was still empty, so I sat down and resumed texting and getting on line. The school has pretty good wi-fi throughout the building, so getting a signal wasn't a problem. My phone was down to 1 bar and needed a charge fortunately, my computer had a pretty good charge.

A Tornado that was in the DFW area on my birthday

It got to be after 3 PM and Google Weather said that the tornado warning had been lifted, so I thought I'd go back to the cafe. I walked back through the atrium to the cafe. It looked pure green outside and the rain was coming down in sheets. I was thinking that there is no way I am walking out into that with my computer!  A prof  told me that there was still a tornado warning.  I went back to where I was and my seat was still available. Then one of the cops said "There's the siren." and I heard the faint whine of what sounded like a siren from outside, but it was hard to tell. The campus cop said that a tornado touched down 8 miles from the campus. I hoped there was no hail as my car was parked outside but didn't hear any and with those skylights nearby, it would have been pretty obvious. I saw a crowd of music students rush through with their instruments. I continued texting and checking the weather on line. I heard a rumor that there was a funnel cloud that touched-down in Addison, which is the city where Steve works. I texted him and he was fine. I was also in touch with Jeff and Stacy. I was so grateful for the capability of texting and that my phone could last this long on one bar.

What the WFAA weather Radar looked like while we were at the campus on 4/3/2012

I thought that since usually Stacy and I meet by the cafe and if my phone died, I had better be at our regular meeting place. When I got there, we still weren't allowed to go into the cafe, but I found a spot on the floor  under a secure overhang, against the wall across from the cafe. This guy even traded places with me so that I could be near an outlet for my computer. I heard someone trying to leave the building and either a teacher or a guard asked them where they were going and then told them that we were still under a warning and that they could not leave. They were clearing people out of the atrium which has lots of glass skylights. I texted Stacy and told her where I was. She texted me back and told me that they wouldn't let her leave the area she was in. Then the battery on my phone started blinking which means that it was on its' last legs. Then the lights in the area I was in went out. I said something like,"Oh great, now my computer isn't getting any power." Then Stacy called me and told me that she was in the area by the restrooms near 'B' hall. I knew that's where I had been waiting previously. I put my computer away and told the professor lady who was watching the area that I was in that I was headed to 'B' hall to meet up with my daughter. I promised her I would stay under the overhang and she let me go. I raced through the atrium and it looked celery green outside.

Semi trailers flying through the air during Tuesday's tornado

I did find Stacy in the exact area that I had been, near 'B' hall. Amazingly enough, the seat that I had was still available. I offered it to Stacy and she told me to take it, that she'd been sitting down for a long time. Then she pulled a chair over and sat next to me. There was a crowd of music students nearby playing their guitars. Most of the students were either talking, texting or on their computers. I was also on my computer. I asked Jeff on facebook chat if we got any hail but didn't get his reply until after I had gotten home. Stacy got a text saying that classes and evening activities had been cancelled. There was an announcement over the loudspeaker system; the cops and profs had to ask the music students to stop playing. The announcement said pretty much the same thing that Stacy's text from the school had said. Then the music students started their music and it was nice. It wasn't long afterwards that a siren sounded in the school and the music students had to stop again. There was no announcement after the siren and no reason for it.

Stacy and I continued to wait. I pulled up the WFAA weather radar on the internet to see what was going on with the storms and it looked like they were moving out of the area. These two ladies who were near us asked me to pull up the Dallas county radar because they were worried about their kids, so I did. It looked pretty nasty but like Plano, the storms were moving out of the area. Soon, we were told that we could leave and so I packed up my computer and Stacy and I left the building. It was cooler out and had stopped raining. The traffic out of the school was really backed-up because so many people who would have normally left had been detained. There was still talk on the radio of a rain-wrapped tornado in Greenville. People on the radio were giving their stories of where they were during the storm. One guy was sitting in an airplane on the tarmac when hail hit, so it must have been like being in a tin can in a hail storm.

As we were driving home, Stacy saw some really strange clouds in the east, quite a distance from us. I remember her saying that it looked bad. She said it was a really low cloud that was strange-looking and I wonder if she saw part of that rain-wrapped tornado in Greenville. Those clouds were in that direction.

Everything at home was fine. McKinney just got very heavy rain. Jeff had made sure that Dan, Yuki (cat) and Mocha (dog) got into the downstairs bathroom when the sirens sounded. Peppermint seemed to know to go into the small room in the master bathroom because that's where I found her when I got home. Jeff said that a really loud siren sounded at Boyd High School which is nearby during the storm. We had to quickly get things ready for my party. We had planned to do this earlier but didn't count on a tornado delaying everything.

The rest of the evening was nice. Steve got home a little early from work. They took me to Chili's for dinner for my birthday. There were videos of the storms on the big screen TV's there. There was one dramatic video of semi trailers being tossed like toys. There were videos of widespread destruction, especially in Arlington, Lancaster and Forney. Chili's wasn't very crowded that night due to the storm. After we got home from Chili's, my family gave me a party with flowers, cards, cake, ice-cream and gifts. It was really, really nice.I got a new drawing pad for the computer, a set of headphones, 'Benji' in blu-ray and 'Dances With Wolves' in blu-ray. Another one of my gifts, a bat plushie, is still in route. It was a wonderful birthday.

I am grateful the only thing to write about in relation to the storm was waiting it out in the hallway of a local college with my daughter. I am also grateful that nobody was killed. I feel bad for those who lost their homes and possessions. There is going to be months and months of  damage repair. I saw pictures of hailstones that  were bigger than tennis balls. A lot of people are going to have to replace their roofs. I'm glad that McKinney was unscathed. I just hope we don't have any more tornadoes or hail this year.

Stacy was only in her classroom a few minutes that day. The class never happened.

It was not just any typical birthday, it was a stormy birthday. For me, it was also a happy birthday.