News: July 2006 Archives
I just felt an earthquake here in St. Charles, MO. It felt very weak, but lasted about 30 seconds. I supposed it could have been someone moving something heavy in the hotel, but I haven't felt anything like it over the past month we've been here. I think it was an earthquake.
Update:
Well, nothing from the USGS, so I guess I was wrong!
It's funny that St. Louis and Los Angeles have been together in the news so much recently.
- Both St. Louis and Los Angeles are having power outages.
- Both St. Louis and Los Angeles are experiencing extreme heat.
- The Cardinals swept the Dodgers 7-0.
All we need now are tornados and earthquakes.
St. Louis got rocked by a pretty tough storm last night that knocked out power throughout much of the metro area, blew part of the roof off Lambert Airport and onto the I-70, and left most of the streetlights off even this morning. Our hotel was unpowered until around 11pm last night, but then the AC came back on and we were able to sleep. The storm itself blew a nice cold breeze over the city, but once it passed the temps climbed back up into the 80s (and hotter inside) which made it hard to get comfortable. Much of the city proper won't get power for one to three days.
The lightning was spectacular, both cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-earth. I learned on the radio this morning that you can't have lightning without ice in the storm, which is why oceanic storms (like hurricanes) rarely have lightning. News reports say a tornado actually touched down in the city last night, but I haven't seen it confirmed yet... and alas, I didn't get to see it with my own eyes. I did get to see bushes and trashcans blown down the street along with other debris, but it was too dark to take pictures. Despite the "severe thunderstorm warning" and the tornado sirens, some other hotel guests still decided to drive out into the deluge to keep whatever appointments were worth risking their lives for.
Happy Independence Day! Remember: you're as free as you want to be.
