Tornado at work

Tornado at work

I got to work that day just like any other day. I had to get up at 5am in the chilly summer morning to be able to make it to work on time. I worked at a drop forging plant that was filthy on a good day. The plant used graphite as a lubricant for the 2 story tall presses, that when in operation each time a stroke came down on the press it shook the whole building and was so loud you had to wear ear protection all the time. I was running a little late so when I walked into the plant it was already making parts, loudly banging away producing a wheel hub for a quad runner that we had no idea who would end up with these parts we were making. I was a machinist, so I did not work on the line as we would call it. The machine shop was in the back of the building so it was quiet compared to the main floor where the 3 towering forged presses are located. The building we were in was 3 stories tall and all steel construction where even the roll-up shop doors could accept a semi-truck inside with lots of room to spare. When these huge roll-up doors where open the temperature in the building changed by at-least ten degrees lower just by letting in the normal outside temperature.

This day I remember we were all about to take a lunch break and I always could not wait for lunch because I was always hungry. The whistle blew a loud screeching yell that was our indicator that it was lunch time. It took about ten minutes to shut everything down and a peace fell upon the place, like an empty gymnasium when you are alone without the lights on, except for the ringing in your ears from the machines and the whistle that identified the meal. The 3ton roll up door was open on this particular day getting ready to receive a truck. My curiosity was peaked when walking towards the lunch room and I strolled over to see what I could see outside. David my friend walked up next to me and asked me how’s the weather, I told him that I thought it was cold for this time of year and we could do without all this rain that we have been having. While standing there in the doorway I looked up at the menacing sky and the dark clouds caught my attention and I turned and look at Jim the maintenance guy and asked him to come over here at look at these funny looking clouds. Just as he came over and looked at these ominous cloud we heard the loud speaker say that a Tornado Warning is active in our area, please take appropriate action. Not more than 30 seconds later the city tornado warning system went off and it was one loud speaker wailing like a fire truck that was inside a building.  I did not see the tornado first that was Jim’s claim to fame, but he grab my arm and pulled me back saying we have to get these doors up. The tornado was only about 200 yards away and coming straight at us. We had to get the doors up before this twister hit or it could tear this building down.

We had finally got the doors all up and was heading over to the lunch room in the center of the building when out of the office this little heavy set guy was running towards the doors and hitting the red button to close them. It was too late, he had gotten four doors down when the twister hit the building like a freight train. The door that I was looking at had ripped of its rails and was flapping in the wind like a flag on its side. We took off running to get to the lunch room and to safety. The door flapping in the wind finally let go and hit the door on the opposite side of the building and took it with it to the neighbors building next door and left a gaping hole in our work place. The sound of what I just saw was defining to the ears and made my ears bleed red down each side of my face. And then Silence, not a sound no storm, no tornado, it was a weird silence until the rest of the workers came out walking towards us in amazement of what had just happened. That’s it a tornado just left me disappointed that I thought it would be more spectacular then it was.