Tornado and pinata

Hal writes:

Anna and I spent some time in the hallway with a few of my residents this evening. A tornado touched down near Platteville and Grant County was under a tornado watch for a while. Everything is fine in Platteville, but I am waiting to hear about the smaller communities that were in the direct path of the bad weather.

The campus police have the ability to send out a prerecorded message warning the residents of the halls via a speaker system. If it were not for the seriousness of the situation, I should have had a picture of me in the hallway. Decked out in clothing in anticipation of having to go out in cold weather, I had my apartment/office phone, cell phone, emergency weather radio, and police scanner at my feet, and I took turns listening to each of them as needed. (Typically I don't have a police scanner, but one of my residents brought it out to me in the hallway. It gave me quicker information than the radio stations or any calling tree in place to inform me of campus information.)

My concern for the evening was the number of residents who chose to ignore the warnings. A number of residents simply stayed in their suites looking out the window (instead of moving into the hallways of the first or second floor) and a few people went outside to watch. Each individual thinks that he/she can "outrun" the tornado (get to a safe location) if they "see" it, but they are unaware of the other people in the building that are thinking the same thoughts and who would ultimately get in their way before they can reach safely. My on call RAs attempted to get people inside, but in the end they are adults and they can choose to tempt fate outside if they wish. Unfortunately, it takes a disaster before students realize the possibility that their lives could be in danger.

Of course, my personal experiences with the Spring 1998 tornado that decimated Gustavus makes me extremely cautious in weather related situations. I found this picture, an aerial photo of Gustavus the day after the tornado.

In addition to having a weekly staff meeting, my staff has "staff dinner" once a week. It is an opportunity to spend time together without having to discuss housing business. This semester, however, class schedules have not allowed for us to share a meal together. Instead, we have "staff fun time" the hour prior to hall council. Each week a different RA gets to select the activity that we participate in. This past weekend, one of my RAs chose to recognize another RAs birthday. In addition to the cake (see staff photo below) my RA also made brownies and we went outside to take turns swinging at a pinata that she made.

Here is my staff playing "Human Pinata" after the real pinata was broken. The second game didn't last very long because their RD said it was not appropriate, but I'm a fun hater like that.