Unusual day

Well, it has been a notable day to say the least.  I know many people think that the predicted "Derecho 2013" was a big joke.  But this isn't the case in the Mill Run area of Hilliard, where I work.  I saw video on the news this morning of the intersection near my office building.  One of the traffic lights was turned completely backward and the lights (naturally) were not working.  Somehow, it never occurred to me that the power in our building may also have been effected.

When I got to the area, you could see a whole crew of people in orange vests with red shopping carts picking up debris from the lawn of the big church there on the corner.  Looking the other way, I saw that Lowe's Garden Center and green house had sustained major damage . . . the people on the church lawn were picking up pieces of Lowe's building. 

At the office, people were milling around outside or sitting in the lobby.  The power was out, so the elevators were not working, and even if you tried to take the stairs, the office where I (and all these other people) work is a secure floor and you cannot get onto the floor without an electronic key card.  Note the root "elec" in electronic . . . these don't work if there is no electricity. 

I got to work about 7:45 -- many others had been there as early as 7:00.  It took until 8:45 for the powers that be to decide to send us home . . . but just for the morning.  We were given a conference call number and pass code to call in at noon to see if we would need to come in in the afternoon. 

From what I heard, power was restored about 11:30, so we were called back into work.  This really throws the rhythm of the day off when you are used to processing your casework in a certain order, but then only have half the usual time to do it.  Also, many of the employees who live further away chose to take PTO time rather than return for the afternoon, so everything just seemed very "off" this afternoon. 

On my way back to the office, a crew was in the intersection repairing the damaged traffic lights, so I had to go around the block to get to work.  There were pieces of insulation (presumably from Lowe's) as far as a block away, as well as several downed trees.  This is the only place that I have yet seen any damage from last night's storms.