So...What? - Part III

The winds continued to roar outside our little stairwell refuge for what seemed like hours but was more in fact about 10 – 12 minutes. In that time frame I witnesses some of my co-workers run the entire gamut of human emotions from stark fear, to crying, hugging one another to shouting angry epitaphs to the Gods while the storm raged on.

When the storm had passed, an eerie quiet seemingly suddenly. My companions in the stairwell, on the landing and below me all raised their heads with imploring eyes. Everyone was straining to hear the sounds around us. I also took notice of others that had sought refuge in the stair well above us in at least the next two landings.

Finally a gentleman I didn’t recognize was the first to crack the door of the stairwell open and gazed out cautiously at the lobby of the building. The look on his face was indicative of the amount of damage that he was seeing for the first time and attempting to reconcile this image with the one that he obviously remembered a short time ago.

I was still sitting in a dazed shock on the first landing when the first group of folks at the base of the stairs bravely ventured forth into the lobby. I heard several “Oh my God” quotes along with “Oh no…” as the reactions began to sitting in with everyone.

After sitting there and seeing that others from the landing above were beginning to filter down, I stood up and made my way into the lobby. The first thing that struck me was the silence. There was no muzak, no white noise, no stirrings of kitchen noises coming form the cafeteria… nothing.

Most of the external windows on the side facing the front of the building were caved in and I could see and feel the breezes coming from the outside. I saw a couple of individuals that had sought refuge under the salad bar tables emerge. It seemed that the damage to the external of building was not extensive although I continued to keep my ear tuned to any groaning in the structure. Once that idea had entered my head my only thoughts were to get outside of the building. I moved towards the door to assess the effects of the storm on the outside world. I also reached for my cell phone wanting to assure myself of the fate of my family in the nearby townships.

I managed to get a call into my wife. She stated that they had some high winds but, no evidence of a wind storm on the scale of what we had experienced. She was about 30 miles west of my employer’s building and I prayed that the storm was moving west to east as most meteorological phenomenon does in this portion of the country. I told her to get into the basement and stay there for a while (just in case).

I scanned the parking lot and saw several vehicles that had been moved by the winds. Some were obviously out of place and two or three were overturned. It wasn’t clear to me yet how much of a direct hit we took.

I heard then the firing up of the diesel generators in the rear of the building and some subsequent pops of electrical equipment. I then scanned the outside of the building and saw some flames in what appeared to be the third floor on the east side of the building. Knowing that this is where our telecommunications equipment was for our data center I thought that this was not a good sign. I then did a quick thank you (sorry it was more of an afterthought) to the fates that this was not as bad of an outcome that my first usual pessimistic outlook was imagining.