(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Three days ago, a tornado swept by. [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-08-27 Thursday night, a huge storm cell swept over southeast Michigan, and my residence happened to be right near its path. Even the night before had been kind of ominous. The rain that pelted the windows well after midnight was hard-driven and stung the panes like a whip. But it had mostly cleared up for the remainder of the day, and I was set to letting that pass into memory, especially as Michigan has been for the most part spared of the harsh weather that has beset many areas of the country (we did get wildfires earlier this summer, but a lot of the country saw wildfires around that same time period). I try to appreciate what good we have when we have it. Michigan had been, for the most part, in the good column. That night, though, the skies had begun to darken early. One meteorologist broke into programming around 9:30 p.m. to say that storms were due to make their way into the area, and that they were carrying a lot of lightning. Tornado warnings were imminent. Warnings, not a watch. I noted the difference in vocabulary right away. Around 10:00 p.m., things started to get a little dicey. I’d been watching a lecture on informational systems, but my attention was being pulled away more and more by the wind that was picking up. Around 10:10 p.m., the weather service broke into programming to warn all who were in its radius that a line of storms with rotation was sweeping through a tri-county area. Debris will happen because of this storm, the warning said. Trailer homes will be damaged. I had not heard a warning like this come over the air before. The warning came to a close and I attempted to restart my YouTube video, but fewer than two minutes later the power went out, as though someone had snatched a cord out of a socket. Then: the wind. The screeching. The punishment of rain. Ever-renewing lightning. Thunder that sounded like constant roaring of planes overhead. The weather report had said that the storms were moving at 60 mph, so it seemed as though, with luck, it would pass through with high winds and hopefully that would be it. And for my area, that seems to have been the case. There were torn tree limbs and other debris around my home, but the most lingering part of the damage was the electricity being disrupted for days. The amount of time without power has rivaled the Great Blackout that hit the eastern sideboard in 2003. But I find I have little footing upon which to complain, because other parts of southeastern Michigan were indeed devastated. We had a total of seven recorded tornadoes, and several people lost their lives. It was a very active cell. I am still reading up on all of the damage wreaked by the storm. Was anyone else in the area impacted? I’m also several days behind in any newsgathering whatsoever. It was very interesting insofar as it was a very isolating event. I had various reasons for staying indoors during just about the entire first day, though my roommate ventured out and had gotten some news over the radio. That was the only news my household had about what had gone on. The next day, with more debris gathered up and more traffic lights in operation, it would have been safe to leave to purchase a newspaper, which I neglected to do. I very much regret that, but the time being basically off the grid and reliant upon one person for any news updates brought to mind what it must have been like before electricity even existed, when potentates would send couriers off to ferry news to other parts of the realm. It also brought to mind what it must be like in the information silo that those in the right wing find themselves in. They’re not stranded due to extreme weather, but they are isolated due to extreme views. They voluntarily wall themselves off from information distributed by anyone other than their identified trusted news sources, so their ability to gauge what’s going on in the rest of the world becomes frightfully limited. It’s like they have only one town crier. When information gets bottlenecked like that, it’s a system ripe for abuse. We’ve seen this before. Anyway. I’ve been out of commission for nearly three days. Please let me know what I’ve missed! I see that a racist mass shooter emerged in the meantime, so I am still learning about that. And I’ve missed just about all of the commentary about the aftermath of the Trump arrest. I’d appreciate any filling in. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/27/2190008/-Three-days-ago-a-tornado-swept-by Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/