The morning after: anybody need pre-moistened insulation?

[sigma7]

Classes canceled, campus still locked down. Ideally it would've been nice to know that before driving to campus. There's saturated squares of yellow insulation everywhere in town now. I'm guessing it's remnants of Waters True Value on Amherst.

Update from the AP: Riley County Police Lt. Kurt Moldrup said Thursday that several Manhattan businesses are damaged or destroyed and 30 homes are leveled. He credits warning sirens before the storms hit Wednesday night for a minimum of minor injuries.... The university said the Wind Erosion Laboratory is destroyed, and the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house is heavily damaged. All residents are safe.

It's that last sentence which is the fantastic part of all of this. The sirens went off what seemed like a half hour before the tornado hit. Unfortunately, one person died in Chapman -- which got hammered -- and another person died in Jackson County.

The Manhattan tornado just skipped over most of town. If it'd stayed on the ground, the town would've been cut in half. So lucky, so damned lucky this time. Chapman lost 60 houses -- dude, I didn't know there were 60 houses in Chapman -- with about that many damaged. It's in dire shape. It hasn't been Greensburg-style flattened, but it's in horrible shape right now.

Doing fine here. Still got power. Birds okay, if confused. Me...overwhelmed. Still quite surreal. Repressing urge to go sight-seeing. Must man the blog.

Edit: And erica_roo's okay, so that's a deep sigh of relief.

Comments

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Classes are not just cancelled, campus is still cordoned off. I'll try again after lunch to see if I can get to Cardwell and assess the damage.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Some of the parking lots and entryways are still roped off, but you can get back to campus now. (Well, not via Denison; the actual street is closed.) There's two huge bodies of people, now -- the people picking up trash and the people taking pictures.

Wefald's estimating $20 million in damages. I believe him.

[rewil.livejournal.com]

It didn't occur to me until this morning that my cousin might be in town, but I think he's home for the summer. I should call a parent and make sure. Sorry, Zane.

Very dark video (except for the debris and the power flashes) from KTKA until the camera gets it.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

That's actually my preferred station for severe weather coverage now. It used to be 27, but something about the new guy is just throwing me off. 49's tag-team approach and awareness of the area is reassuring.

So yeah, we'd been watching that skycam view already -- to see it get taken out like that is just...creepy.

I'm glad you are all okay.

[(Anonymous)]

It's wonderful that the casualties were so few. Sucks about the rest of it. However, must stress glad you are all okay.

Re: I'm glad you are all okay.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Aw, thanks. It's good to hear from you.