Tornado Alert!!

During the stay in Ann Arbor, although uneventful otherwise, I got to experience the tornado firsthand. 

On one of the fine days, the weather had predicted rain in the late afternoon. Meghana and I were prepared with umbrellas. We visited some of the touristy places on the college campus, like UMMA (University of Michigan Museum of Art), Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, etc. (Details about these - some other time!!) After the visit, we decided to wait in the lounge area in the Michigan Union, where Mrunmay was to come and meet us after his classes. Mrunmay came in after his classes. And then came the demand for coffee. 

Michigan Union hosts a cafe called SweetWaters Cafe. Spread across 37 locations across the states, I found this one to have one of the best frappes. I placed the order on their self-order kiosk and was sitting patiently for the barista to prepare the order. It appeared that the barista was a trainee and took longer than anticipated, resulting in exchanging calls with Meghana/Mrunmay about how long it was taking. Finally, I got the order, picked up the pickup tray, and started walking towards the lounge area, which was a floor below.

As I entered the lounge, I sensed my phone vibrating again. I could see Meghana with a phone in her hand and assumed she is trying to call me. Ignored and reached the table, only to realize that almost everyone was looking at their phones. Placed the tray on the table and pulled out my mobile as I heard Meghana asking if I had received any alert. Startled, I looked at my phone and saw "Tornado Alert".

The weather outside had changed suddenly, and there was heavy wind outside. The alert suggested that we should take shelter in the basement or some substantial structure, and we started wondering if we had to go somewhere or hold our post!! Looked around and found that most of the folks were sitting at their places, making me wonder if this was kind of normal to them. It indeed was. Mrunmay quickly checked with his roommate, who happens to be an in-state student and was used to these kinds of alerts. We also realized that the lounge was already at basement level, and we could see the ground level from the windows situated slightly above eye level. 

The next several minutes were full of curiosity, anxiousness, and awe. I was observing things around. The television sets across the lounge were originally showing some news channel; now all of them were showing a standard drill for a tornado alert. People sitting next to the windows had moved away from the windows and had emptied the space. Thunderstorms started outside, and we could see the raindrops flowing almost horizontally due to the speed of the wind. 

We had received this alert around 3:45 PM, and it mentioned that the alert was active until 4:15. Given our experience in India, where the weather and the weather department are out of sync most of the time, I was not sure if the storm would be over so soon. The visible speed of the wind was just too much. The only thing we could do was to watch and sit patiently. Ended up capturing some videos and snaps, though. To our surprise, the weather actually cleared in a few minutes around 4:15; the rain stopped, wind slowed down. Even with the heavy downpour, the roads outside Michigan Union were drained fully, with very little residual water around. 

This was my first experience with a "tornado". In the last couple of years, our government has also started sending out SMS alerts, but they have been largely vague and too frequent, resulting in those getting ignored. We typically receive the following message, which is vague and unactionable at best!!

पुढील ३ तासात पुणे जिल्हयात काही ठिकाणी ताशी ६०-७० किमी वेगाच्या सोसाट्याच्या वाऱ्यांसह मुसळधार पावसाची शक्यता आहे. नागरिकांनी सतर्क राहवे. मंत्रालय, मुंबई

Two days later, I saw this in local news:

Disaster Recovery Center Open: A quick note for locals: the city has opened a Disaster Recovery Center at the Westgate Branch Library to help Washtenaw County residents impacted by the recent summer storms and tornadoes apply for federal relief before the deadlines hit.

This experience left me impressed with the efficient use of technology on multiple fronts:

• The alert was delivered precisely: before the thunderstorm started; to all cellphones in the area (mine was an Indian number, on roaming; I still received it)
• The info had a precise start and end time, which actually proved correct
• The alert specifically called out what to do to keep yourself safe.
• There's a set process to handle these recurring phenomena without people needing to ask for compensation or relief. 

Although the area receives tornadoes routinely, I was relieved to see that the local government, including the university, is well-prepared to handle the situation, given that my kiddo is going to spend a good amount of time in that area :)