Last Wednesday’s GA shift was pretty uneventful — for most of the day, anyway.
Severe storms, a flood watch and a tornado warning hit Columbia that evening, sending everyone (and especially those people like me whose only idea of a tornado is from “The Wizard of Oz”) into a frenzy. The editors watched the radar. Everyone got calls and texts at the same time from MU Alert and the National Weather Service. We looked outside at the dark, eerie sky and crowded in front of the budget room windows and saw who could spot the largest piece of hail.
Upon hearing about the warning, we all had to drop everything and head down to the basement of Lee Hills Hall (where the Missourian is housed) for about half an hour. (Thankfully, it wasn’t longer, though I grabbed Famous Amos cookies from the vending machine on the way in case we were down there all night.) There were lots of students and faculty down there, but thankfully, there was room enough for all of us, and it wasn’t too bad — we all pulled out our laptops and iPhones and continued to work and monitor the weather. (I know. Journalists.)
Another reporter and I stayed late to write about the storm. Having not been in the outside world since 11 a.m., I had no idea how bad damage or anything actually was. According to our sources, it luckily wasn’t much. One part of Boone County didn’t even receive an emergency call.
However, we reported it anyway — some written proof that no, Grandma, the entire state of Missouri wasn’t underwater last week. (My apartment might have been, but that’s an entirely different story.)