Neither the GG or I can get a grip on what time the sirens started. Was it 1:30 AM? I dunno. What a cacophony! There was the regular outdoor siren and maybe a few others? And my phone was just SCREAMING. The GG looked at the radar and saw a “bow echo” (that might not be exactly the correct term), a tornado signature. He went into “freak-out” mode. That is, freak-out mode for the GG, which is different than freak-out mode for the rest of us. Meaning he WENT OUTSIDE. Actually he WAS nervous for real this time.

Added to the storm raging outside and all the alarms, a little text message storm began as the beach urchins reported that they were in their basements. Were their *parents* also in the basement? It was an intense storm and I’m glad the kids took shelter but I confess the GG and I never quiiiite made it to the dungeon (neither did npJane at her house). There was a LOT of lightning and heavy rain but we weren’t getting high winds here at the Landfill so we hovered at the top of the stairs and waited it out, ready to dive down into the catacombs if necessary.

We had no damage but in the cold clear light of day, other folks in the near vicinity definitely did. There was apparently a touchdown at Veteran’s Park, where one of the ice arena’s walls came down and it looked like some pieces of it scattered all over the park. We couldn’t get close enough to take a pic (although they were posted everywhere) because the city had all the park entrances blocked.

Lots of trees were down in the park and adjacent neighborhoods, then the tornado apparently skipped its way down to and through downtown, wreaking its havoc here and there as tornadoes do on The Planet Ann Arbor. I have not heard one report of death or injury and for that we are all thankful.

We engaged in a short bit of disaster tourism this morning. I took some pix of downed trees but for the most part, we tried to stay outta the way of the city workers cleaning up the mess. They had probably been working most of the night and didn’t need us and Cygnus in the way.

The pic I took to post is the Knight’s Steakhouse horse head with half its head severed. The second pic shows it in its glory years. I’m sure Knight’s will restore it.

A good thing that seems to be coming from this? A while back, our city council, in its infinite wisdom [snort], was toying with the idea of dismantling the local tornado sirens. Immediately after last night’s event (it seems), a decision has been made to keep them and enhance/refurbish them as needed. It’s true we haven’t had a tornado in quite some years but if you have a working tornado (air raid) siren system, why dismantle it?

Thanks to Our Northern Correspondent and my cousin Pooh for checking in on us.

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