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mayhapFire drills, tornado drills, school violence drills, terrorism drills, and whatnot tend to make us very, very blasé about the possibility of these things actually occurring. Although, when I was in high school, I was occasionally prompted to contemplate my own mortality when I was in certain parts of the building during a tornado drill, which necessitated that we go outside to reach the basement. We all pretty much looked up into the blue skies at this moment and thought, "Okay, here's where we get sucked into the tornado and die because our school was designed by bloody morons."
The idea of course is to practice, because obviously we will have no idea what to do unless we practice all the time. And to a certain degree, I suppose, this is true, as it never would have occurred to me without lots of practice that a good idea in case of a tornado would be to go outside. However, the primary effect seems to be that an alarm going off is absolutely nothing but an annoyance as far as anyone is concerned. You sit still, hoping that it will go away soon and you won't actually have to move: ironically, precisely the opposite of what is intended.
On Friday, when I was at work (tutor in a 3rd grade classroom in midtown Manhattan), the fire alarm started going off, right in the middle of choice time (kids set loose while Wendy and I do Very Important Things.) We'd been running around like crazy making copies all day and were so much so disinclined to line up the children and march them out into the street that we actually instructed them to go back to what they were doing.
Of course, there was a "real fire," as someone came by to inform us, so we ended up not only out on the street but trying to console kids who were convinced that their favorite books or GameBoy games were going to burn up. The fire was a bit overrated, just some minor conflagration in the high school attached to the building, but it was certainly more than we actually expected out of it.
Rather more significantly, this afternoon I was talking to my mom on AIM, and she was all talking about geraniums or somesuch, when:
(17:29:41) Thue: oh, the power was flickering and danny says we have a tornado watch and warning for some areas close by
(17:30:47) Thue: i never actually feel like a tornado will ever actually dare come near me
(17:30:52) Me: heh
(17:30:55) Me: they haven't so far
(17:30:55) Thue: but I need to act responsibly for the boy
She finally did get off a bit later. As it turns out, there were tornadoes, with major destruction all around Kansas City and Liberty, including serious damage quite close to my house in the historic downtown area, where roofs came off, and the college nearby, where various buildings seem to have been destroyed. My boyfriend, who lives a few blocks away, had his drainpipe come off, and several buildings which were already condemned across the street from him were destroyed. At third-hand, I also heard that the roof of the junior high (again, right in my neighborhood) came off, and if this is true, my little brother will be most pleased, but the whole thing is really a great mess.
It just seems so odd, after all the tornado false alarms, that there were actual tornados. One comes not to expect that. One is deadened to the possibility of anything but more false alarms.
If my dorm catches on fire, on the other hand, there won't be any point trying to evacuate, anyway: I firmly believe that it would go up like paper.
The idea of course is to practice, because obviously we will have no idea what to do unless we practice all the time. And to a certain degree, I suppose, this is true, as it never would have occurred to me without lots of practice that a good idea in case of a tornado would be to go outside. However, the primary effect seems to be that an alarm going off is absolutely nothing but an annoyance as far as anyone is concerned. You sit still, hoping that it will go away soon and you won't actually have to move: ironically, precisely the opposite of what is intended.
On Friday, when I was at work (tutor in a 3rd grade classroom in midtown Manhattan), the fire alarm started going off, right in the middle of choice time (kids set loose while Wendy and I do Very Important Things.) We'd been running around like crazy making copies all day and were so much so disinclined to line up the children and march them out into the street that we actually instructed them to go back to what they were doing.
Of course, there was a "real fire," as someone came by to inform us, so we ended up not only out on the street but trying to console kids who were convinced that their favorite books or GameBoy games were going to burn up. The fire was a bit overrated, just some minor conflagration in the high school attached to the building, but it was certainly more than we actually expected out of it.
Rather more significantly, this afternoon I was talking to my mom on AIM, and she was all talking about geraniums or somesuch, when:
(17:29:41) Thue: oh, the power was flickering and danny says we have a tornado watch and warning for some areas close by
(17:30:47) Thue: i never actually feel like a tornado will ever actually dare come near me
(17:30:52) Me: heh
(17:30:55) Me: they haven't so far
(17:30:55) Thue: but I need to act responsibly for the boy
She finally did get off a bit later. As it turns out, there were tornadoes, with major destruction all around Kansas City and Liberty, including serious damage quite close to my house in the historic downtown area, where roofs came off, and the college nearby, where various buildings seem to have been destroyed. My boyfriend, who lives a few blocks away, had his drainpipe come off, and several buildings which were already condemned across the street from him were destroyed. At third-hand, I also heard that the roof of the junior high (again, right in my neighborhood) came off, and if this is true, my little brother will be most pleased, but the whole thing is really a great mess.
It just seems so odd, after all the tornado false alarms, that there were actual tornados. One comes not to expect that. One is deadened to the possibility of anything but more false alarms.
If my dorm catches on fire, on the other hand, there won't be any point trying to evacuate, anyway: I firmly believe that it would go up like paper.