Saturday, June 7, 2008

Tornado aftermath

A quick update/status from the tornado that passed near our home last week, and some advice for everyone to prevent a nasty aftershock in any emergency that involves the power grid.

Our home was undamaged. It missed us by about 2 miles. My car not-so-much, as I was driving out of the actual path of the storm and got whacked by hail the size of baseballs. Nothing that can't be repaired easily. I can tell you that the sound your car makes when being bombarded by hail of that magnitude is amazing.

The aftermath? If the power goes out for an entire city, go, immediately, unplug everything you value. Your computer, the stereo, TV, the fridge, freezer, clock radios, get it all off the grid. The local power company was in a hurry to get everything running after 48 hours of darkness. When they flipped the big master switch, the resulting city-wide surge zapped thousands of appliances and electronics into oblivion. The wise among us did not suffer any damage from the power up. The unwise lost not only electronics, in some cases the surge was powerful enough to burn out house wiring.

Just saying . . .