Ah friends! The fun and games we have as strangers in this confusing land.
Last night was one of those times. It had been a nasty day, weather-wise, with a thunderstorm first thing, and plenty of heat, joined by more than enough rain. Over dinner I shared with J. what I’d learned at the Nature Unleashed exhibition at the Field Museum the previous week. It had been an interesting visit, and I’d encountered plenty of new-to-me facts about earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes and tornadoes.
Can you see where this is going?
We couldn’t.
After dinner I curled up on the sofa with a book, listening to the wind and rain, whilst J. fine-tuned something undoubtedly vitally important in the insides of his computer, in the other room. It took me a while, but I realized I could hear a funny wail outside that wasn’t just the wind. I took a saunter through to the other room to comment on how it sounded strange. J. was uninterested, so, fairly stupidly given the strong winds, I opened the balcony doors to get a better listen. Definitely not the recommended action when you hear a civil defense siren – open your all glass, 12th floor balcony doors.
I was beginning to get concerned, hard to imagine, I know, so I turned to my trusty mac. Yes, there was indeed a severe weather warning for Illinois, it was, certainly, for Cook county, and look at that, it was a tornado warning with a predicted path that was due to arrive remarkably close by us in about 10 minutes. I was sure it wasn’t cool to panic. On the other hand, our apartment has floor to ceiling windows in almost all the rooms.
I tried to stop J. watching the thunderstorms out of those windows and join me in the bathroom – it’s the only room with no windows. Shortly after I succeeded in getting him out of the living room (six windows and the aforementioned balcony doors), the little red box in that room started to make ominous noises.
It appeared that the doorman was trying to send us a message over the building loudspeakers. He kept trying for a good five to ten minutes. White noise and static over and over, with the occasional mumble or phone ringing in the background. By now, I was starting to panic. If he was trying to tell the building residents something, I was getting to the point where I’d really like to hear it.
Finally, we were asked to use the stairwells and get to the first floor.
Ever well-prepared, downstairs we went, with a can of coke, a book and a sweater. And down stairs, and down stairs, and down stairs. Thank heavens we don’t live any higher than floor 12. Interestingly, the emergency staircase to the first floor took us out of the building and somehow we ended up outside. Luckily most of us had keys, so we were able to get back inside the lobby, but that’ll be something to remember: our emergency staircase is not to be used in any emergency which requires not being outside.
So, there we all were, in the lobby of our building. Waiting.
No tornado, downtown thankfully, although two were confirmed in the suburbs, but my husband was not to be talked away from the rattling windows. Lucky for you, as once we were allowed back upstairs, he captured some footage of the thunderstorms that continued to rage into the early hours of this morning. Here’s some free fireworks over the Sears Tower:
(If you click the hyperlink on the title of this video, you can be whisked to a place where you can see a second clip.)
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LivinginChicago 