TWISTER TWISTER

It's ironic that, after 22 uneventful years in Kansas City, I come to Iowa City right when it's hit by tornadoes.

Fortunately, I'm okay. I wasn't actually at home when it happened; lordtravis and teachingmusic had a few of us (bshippotemkin, Erin and me) over to watch Big Trouble in Little China (which was better than I was expecting). Oddly enough, before we started the movie we were watching the news about "TORNADO WATCH WOOOO"; Jacob and I, both being from various parts of Tornado Alley, were all "wtf, we just tune this crap out, it never hits anyway." I CLEARLY WON'T BE WINNING ANY AWARDS FOR PRESCIENCE HUH

Afterwards, Erin offered to drive me home; we ended up hitting a traffic jam as we entered Iowa City, and around the time we hit downtown and saw no power and storm debris we figured out what had happened and turned on the radio. Apparently they were trying to shunt people out of downtown because there was a gas leak; of course, scads of the retarded teeny UI undergrads insisted on running all around the city and in general making rescue crews' efforts harder (the downsides of this happening on a Thursday night and ejecting folks from bars).

Erin dropped me as close to my apartment as we could reasonably get, given the traffic - on Van Buren, about six blocks away (though I had to go around a bit) - and I walked home from there. It was rather like I imagine walking through a war zone must be like - completely dark, hordes of people running around, debris all over. As I got closer to my apartment, things actually got worse, which made me fear for it a bit. For those who have been here, you know Happy Joe's on Gilbert (right around the corner from Thai Flavors)? It's not so much happy anymore; in fact, it's not so much THERE. The Kum'n'Go across Burlington is in pretty bad shape too; and the traffic lights on that intersection are pretty much totalled. And Thai Flavors and Tony's and the smoothie place seem to have all had their windows blown out.

I was amused at hearing undergrads saying stuff like, "It's like Katrina...no, it's, like, worse than Katrina out here!" Ahhh, self-centered tardlings. XD

These things being, like, a block and a half from my apartment made me fear for my own living space. Fortunately, my only problem was having no power (which as things go is not all that bad at all) and that even came back on at 6:30 this morning. So I was actually pretty lucky; one of my classmates, Anna, called to see if I was okay, and I guess our other classmate Joanne had to stay with her due to the tornado basically going right through her backyard. She also said that apparently Panchero's got totalled, as did the Dairy Queen over on Riverside. To be honest, it's a miracle that only one person died that's being reported (in a mobile home accident).

So yeah, that's basically yesterday evening in a nutshell. Now to venture out and see the wreckage in the light of day.

Edit: Okay, the Kum'n'Go wasn't as badly damaged as I thought - it all seems to be cosmetic. The wreckage of the scaffolding that had been above it fell down on it, and that must have been why I thought the roof was in such bad shape. They've gotten it all off and they seem to be attempting to be open for business though! Happy Joe's, however, seems pretty much as totalled as it did last night.

(Even though they're not technically keeping folks out of all of downtown anymore, they're strongly encouraging us not to go, so I basically just went round the block and saw what was up here.)

Edit 2: And of course they cancel class on a day I don't have any. >_<

Edit 3: Went to the grocery store and was greeted with an upside-down car leaning against a tree half a block from my apartment (which I didn't notice when I was out earlier). Also, a lot of uprooted trees, and of course city folks of various kinds have been directing traffic at the intersections which have no lights, given the rather hellish traffic at the moment. (Because, while UI cancelled classes today, staff still had to go in. Which sucks for them.)

Also, lordtravis, I just realized I forgot to give you money for the pizza yesterday...I'll bring it to class on Tuesday.

Edit 4: You can see pictures of Iowa City post-storm here. Here's Happy Joe's, looking not-so-happy. Also check out the Alpha Chi Omega house, which kinda had an entire side ripped off. Here's one of part of the Ped Mall downtown. And another.

*snore*

Augh, why am I so tired? I slept a full ten hours last night, took a four-hour afternoon nap (and I NEVER take naps - seriously, that's the first time in like several years), and even though it's only 10 p.m. I can barely keep my eyes open. I hope I'm not coming down with something. D:

In lieu of actual interesting content, have some new Persona 3 scans as well as some new info about it (courtesy of shinkun).