So... What? - Part II

At first it was hard to make out and fully grasp what I was seeing. If I didn’t know that it was early afternoon, I might have surmised that it was about 6:30 in the morning.

The horizon was obscured severely by what appeared to be very thick, ominous looking fog banks that were continuing to roll towards us. I could barely make out the outline of the guard shack that stood at the perimeter of the company’s property. As we stood there, the bright sunshine that was streaming just moments before, was now becoming almost imperceptible because of the fog.

Without feeling it, I could sense high winds accompanying the fog. There aren’t many tall trees on the property but the hedges and the light poles that were arrayed throughout the parking lot were beginning to show some straining to these elements.

I was still focused on the fog when another element of the scene in front of me began to demand some of my attention. A large cone-shaped image was emerging slowly from the fog. It seemed to take up the upper portion of the fog bank with the pointed end of the cone now lowering towards the horizon perhaps about 1/2 mile away. I could clearly make out other smaller box like objects whirling around the vortex of the cone when I knew that I was witnessing my first hurricane/tornado and it was bearing down on us quite quickly and seemingly on a direct path towards the building.

I came to this conclusion perhaps a few second ahead of the security guards that were standing along side of me and a few other gawking spectators that had gathered in lobby during this interim.

A couple of things entered my mind. We were standing in a slab constructed four story building. There was no basement or underground portion of the building to move people towards or to seek shelter. The upper floors were all encased in wrap-around glass that ran from floor to ceiling. The ground floor where we were standing was probably the most well-protected portion of the building. I’d often heard that you were supposed to seek shelter underneath archways in some internal portion of the building in such circumstances. I glanced around to see if any of the guards (or others) were looking to snap into action.

Seeing nothing of the sort, I decided that I would begin to move back into the center area of the building towards the 1st floor conference center and shoot for the stairwell as the best place to be if/when this storm was going to be hitting the building. As an aside, I shouted that I think we all might want to do the same thing and move away from the lobby, the cafeteria and all those lovely windows and head for the stairwells.

A few folks blindly followed me, a few of the guards took the prompting and began to move some folks out of the lobby. The last time I looked back, I saw that there were still a half dozen or more of folks that had remained standing stock-still continuing to gaze uncontrollably at nature’s fury when I heard the first windows breaking inwards.

I entered the stairwell and moved upwards towards the first landing. It was perhaps 12 steps but afforded anyone who was following me the opportunity to get into that space without having to step around me. There were several shocked looks on the faces of the few people that had followed my lead. I could only imagine what was evident on my own face. I’m a life time New Yorker and the specter of hurricanes or tornadoes in this region is remote at best. The only things I knew about these circumstances were what I saw portrayed in the media and in movies. I never dreamed that I would be thrust into such a situation (at least not around here).

We started to hear some shrieking and cries of fear and perhaps other emotions from the areas above and outside of the stairwell. The lights went out within a minute of the time we took our positions and in addition to the human noises, I also heard the roar of the storm rumbling seemingly all around us.

Not typically fairly religious a short prayer was running through my mind.