This blows

[sigma7]

My city is bleeding tonight.

Nine times out of ten when the sirens wail I call up the local TV stations to get a good view of the Doppler radar, see where exactly the cell's forming, where it's really going. And I can usually tell when it's going to swing north or south or just dissipate. (I used to want to be a meteorologist; I bet you didn't know that.)

Tonight it was clear when it was still half an hour away that we were in trouble. But the sirens gave everyone plenty of time -- we knew it was coming.

The tornado ran from southwest to northeast parts of town. There's a whole bunch of houses without roofs, gutted, heavily damaged or just disintegrated. The new hardware store on the west side of town was leveled. It touched down just on this side of campus, blew out windows in the engineering building, Fiedler and Durland Halls. Radio's saying that there have been whole trees uprooted, now scattered in the street along with a handful of stop signs. A soil study lab got removed and replanted in the middle of a parking lot. Cardwell, Burt and Ward Halls (not "Burt Ward Hall," sadly) have all been damaged and the vice-provost issued a press release say to stay the hell away from campus; it's been sealed off.

The south side of town has gone dark, along with much of this area. Not here. If I'd just gone to sleep at 9 pm, like I intended, I never would've noticed a thing. I feel a little guilty.

We're not going to know until the morning how dire the entire situation is, but the reports coming in are painting a much grimmer figure as they unfurl.

Manhattan had a collective feeling of security -- we hadn't had a tornado here in town in my recollection, though some have come close. We're in one of the more topographically energetic parts of the Flint Hills, not landscape you'd expect in Kansas, and that got a lot of credit for not having a tornado here. That also got leveled tonight.

Some injuries reported. Everything's still sketchy at this point. Still have a few people to track down, but everything's fine on this end. Completely freaked out and going into tachycardia, but intact. Tonight, that's more than enough.

Moar: The Sigma Alpha Epsilon house -- just about across the street from Durland/Fiedler -- has been unroofed.

Here's a rough-n-dirty map of the three confirmed touchdown points.

Shelters up at Portoff Hall at Cico Park. Another shelter at Putnam Hall on campus. Weber Hall suffered serious damage. Moore Hall also damaged. Chapman got hit pretty hard, but not much news from there yet. Okay, patchsassy says the high school lost its roof. Pictures from Chapman, Manhattan.

I'm going to go lay down now. (Oh, Pat Bosco says orientation/enrollment will go on as scheduled tomorrow...er, this morning. Mutter.)

Comments

[missmiah.livejournal.com]

Holy crap. I wonder if it's too late to call Perky and see if she's ok?

So glad you guys are safe.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

It sounds like she was on the right side of town, but I don't think she'd mind in this case. If she has power.

And thanks. This is not helping the heart, though.

[patchsassy.livejournal.com]

How is it that I wait for 10 years for a tornado and within a month of me leaving, it's gloom and doom for two weeks straight? I mean really. Y'all should come after me with pitchforks. But, however, everyone I know and love in Manhattan appears to be safe and in one piece, so I can breathe a sigh of relief.

Was Cardwell hit? One of my friends has class there tomorrow and is trying to figure out if there is going to be class tomorrow or not.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Cardwell was damaged, that we know so far. How badly, we don't.

Let me say I will be astonished if there is class -- or anything -- on campus tomorrow. Or even Friday.

[patchsassy.livejournal.com]

Does campus have power? That could be crucial.

From what it sounds like, the zoo could have taken a bad hit as well. Not sure how bad but I'm really hoping that there's nothing dangerous there.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

I have no idea re: power or zoo. I don't think they'll be done getting the roads clear by sunrise. There's been entire trees dropped casually into the street, and plenty of gawking human cholesterol clogging up the work. I doubt we'll be workable before Monday.

[patchsassy.livejournal.com]

"some from the ramada called WIBW and said that the crane out front of the union was spinning."

I've also heard the path was 1/4 mile wide.

I'm trying to get WIBW to stream onto my computer so that I don't feel completely cut off but it's not working. I'm going to have to beat it, I see.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

The best coverage I'm hearing is from 101.5/96.3/104.7/KMAN on a quad-cast. Maybe one of their web pages has streaming audio...?

I'm not sure where this little monster's going to fall on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, but anything shy of an EF3 will astonish me.

[patchsassy.livejournal.com]

I finally got up a live feed of KMAN. I didn't think it was going to be this bad when I heard about it. Nothing ever happens in Manhattan, right?

[patchsassy.livejournal.com]

Also, add this to your LiveBlog about Chapman (I heard this directly from someone who was there):

The high school (which was built in 1889...I know this because my great-grandmother attended it on its first day) lost its roof. The Methodist church was also very badly damaged. There are several houses that are just vaporized. The downtown is also in really really bad shape.

Also, I heard on KMAN that an apartment complex on College Heights was damaged as well in Manhattan.

EDIT: Chapman from the Salina Journal

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

...Good God. I like Jeff Cooper shots, but...wow.

[patchsassy.livejournal.com]

On the KTKA Web site, there are pictures from the Little Apple Toyota lot.

[patchsassy.livejournal.com]

Damage in faculty offices in Durland. Damage in Rathbone. Lost the atrium to Fiedler, so there's water damage there (from KMAN via the engineering head of department). Lost some equipment on West side but no one was hurt. There were students in the building but they were okay.

I think I'm going to go try to take a nice big swig of codeine, take a bath and try to calm my frazzled nerves. I don't think anyone I work with here is going to understand exactly how freaked out I am.

[rewil.livejournal.com]

D:

Holy crap indeed. That's too damn close.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

A block away. A goddamned block away.

[begstodiffer.livejournal.com]

Just got the news from missmiah, and have been scouring the web for info. You're the most informative so far - thanks.

Glad you're all ok.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Aw, thanks. I'm adding stuff as I get it. Liveblogging the aftermath, as it were. It has nothing to do with the fact that I can't sleep, no.

[blemt.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you guys are okay physically. I know on the mental side you are all far from fine. *hug*

This has been a rough year. I have a friend who lives in Windsor, Co. Last week we had a touchdown in the DC area. (And seeing spinning clouds when you look out the windows in a health club with 300+ people in it at the time is NOT reassuring).

Hang in there guys.

[smashingstars.livejournal.com]

Hey, it's Stacia. Good to see you're okay, man. You were much closer than we were, we were only about 1/2 mile away, although Eddie did manage to drive himself even closer to the storm unwittingly. Hope you got to sleep sooner than I did. (It's 4:05 AM now. Heh.)

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Hee! Hey there. The heart eventually slowed down and then profound exhaustion set in. Glad you and yours are all okay.

And Eddie's carrying on a proud tradition of inadvertently charging into the face of Certain Doom. I did that in '93. Do not want.

[reynardine.livejournal.com]

I'm glad ya'll weren't hurt. Good luck for the recovery of your town.

[beeform]

I'm going to go lay down now. (Oh, Pat Bosco says orientation/enrollment will go on as scheduled tomorrow...er, this morning. Mutter.)

How are we supposed to stay off campus when they're planning on continuing with enrollment? I imagine I'm now considered "essential staff" for this. Great. And I love how the press release issued indicated that there would be an updated release after 8 a.m. (well after most of the staff is already on campus). Mutter, mutter.

[silent-ic-river.livejournal.com]

Stay safe.

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

According to the Press Release I'm part of the group that can stay home. But I'm already up, so I might as well go in and see what the damage is and start working on rearranging the course schedules for the three classes we have running in the summer.

And I was a whole mile from the path (go a mile up K-113 on the map sigma7 linked and that's about where I live), so I got off lightly. My office in Cardwell has no windows, so it's probably fine. The classrooms are another matter.

[daethkow.livejournal.com]

When I read "north side of campus" on Kansas.com this morning, I thought "Wow. Good thing Ken lives on the...."

Then I panicked, just a little.

Glad to hear you're okay. Funny thing is, I know that this wasn't the closest you've ever been to a tornado, in Manhattan even.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

It was a tie, I think. That close.

[kateshort.livejournal.com]

aardy and I are very happy to hear from you guys. *hug*

[rainfletcher.livejournal.com]

Oh, fekt.

Thank you for reporting in. Please to be stopping these storms now, Ma Nature?

I'd beg you to stay calm and rest the ticker, but I'm not that naive, so I'll just say hang in there, bro. I'm glad you're safe.