all in a days work ......... my school gets evacuated

June 9, 2006 at 5:06 AM

What a day....what a week even but mainly, what a day. It was 12:30 and I was counting the minutes to lunch break at school, when I could satisfy the grumbling in my tummy. The bell goes, yay freedom (!) and I wind my way down through the two big historical buildings of the campus to the main building with a student lounge and microwave. Ah, heat! My homemade shepherd's pie (curtesy of self) just starting to warm up on the outer edges... a yummy scent coming from the little glowing box. *BANG* the whole lounge is illuminated with light from the dark sky outside. The microwave continues to wrrr as the sky gets blacker still and rain (see picture below) begins to pour. *BANG* another crack of thunder and lightening rattle the room, this time the fire alarms go off. The next sound I hear is the groaning of fellow students in the halls.. fire alarms mean you have to leave the building...the outdoors are not particularly appealing (or much safer) in an electrical storm. I grabbed my partially frozen lunch, grabbed my back pack and ran for the nearest exit amidst the rush of people (my school has roughly 1800 students). I found momentary "shelter" under a ledge standing in about 6 inches of water that was rushing past me. This area near my school is known as the smoking pit and as many began to gather and the space became cramped and the tobacco came out, I left.... I found sort of shelter under another area but was still very much exposed to the water pouring out of the sky. So after a long while standing there, getting wet and after fire trucks had come to investigate the alarm, school officials came around and told us we were being evacuated to a nearby middle school. We were told the school was struck by lightning and that someone had seen smoke coming from one of the buildings. So you can imagine 1800 students pile their way up to another, smaller school and then all the kids from a massive track meet nearby also added to the cramped spaces at the school. After wandering around trying to find someone that I knew, I was successful and they had a phone! I tried calling somoene to let them know what was going on and I was unable to reach anyone. Eventually the all clear was given and the storm cleared and the school was ruled safe, so we were able to return and still have the last half of our last block class for the day. What a weird ordeal though! I was squishy and wet for the rest of the day though which was rather uncomfortable.

After all that, I'm home now, dry and relatively happy. I just have a history test tomorrow that I don't want to think about.....

From Jasmine Lewis
Posted on June 9, 2006 at 5:09 AM

I'm glad you're not all squishy and wet anymore! Don't get sick and fail that history test tomorrow! (hehe, i'm writing this AND IMing you at the same time!).

From Pauline Lerner
Posted on June 9, 2006 at 7:31 AM

That's a lot of excitement. Did you take the photo? How? When? Where? I'm glad you're OK.

From Jim W. Miller
Posted on June 9, 2006 at 7:55 AM

The thing I can't believe is that they let you smoke at school in Canada. No way in the U.S. No politician could leave that alone, not to mention the Association of American Mothers. It would blow every fuse in their mind. Here in the land of the mothered and the home of the Oprah'ed...

From Ben Clapton
Posted on June 9, 2006 at 12:59 PM

what i want to know is did you get to finish the shepherd's pie

From Kelsey Z.
Posted on June 9, 2006 at 3:07 PM

I did take the picture. The picture is actually from a previous storm but comes pretty close to looking like what we actually were in.

Smoking at my school is a problem and it's recognized as a problem (as is drugs and alcohol) and part of the reason we have a "smoking pit" is to keep those who find it necessary to smoke in a confined area. There have been a lot of disputes and violence over some of those things and teachers and different administrative people usually come out and supervize while everyone else just avoids the scene. It is against the law to smoke here unless you are of a certain age but what can you do? Other attempts to solve the problems here have had more negative results than positive ones.

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all in a days work ......... my school gets evacuated

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