(BLOGGER'S NOTE: We realize Hurricane Ivan has caused a lot of disruption for a lot of people. Our sympathies to those of you with repairs to make or power still out - and we suggest you bookmark this post for that time when "we'll all look back on this and laugh.")
You know there's a hurricane threatening the Columbus area when you walk into a restaurant for dinner - and EVERY TV screen in the place is showing the Weather Channel. Either something serious is coming, or everyone is bored by September baseball.
The Columbus area felt some of the force of Hurricane Ivan Wednesday night and Thursday. The rain sometimes fell so hard that it seemed the entire city was moving through the Fourth Avenue Car Wash.
Hurricane Ivan was so powerful that more than half of Alabama Power's customers statewide lost electricity. That's 700,000 homes and businesses - a lot of people to demand the company reach a contract agreement with electrical workers
quickly.
Alabama Power warned in advance some customers might lose power for two weeks because of Hurricane Ivan. Thankfully, this is a state where an electric can opener still is considered a luxury item.
Alabama sports officials prepared for Hurricane Ivan by cancelling all high school football games statewide this weekend. Many families will need that time for more important things - like driving their RV's to Auburn or Tuscaloosa right before
Saturday's kickoffs.
Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum in Auburn was turned into an evacuation shelter. The Red Cross was prepared to use dorm rooms, in case the arena reached capacity - but as we all know, that only happens when Kentucky's basketball team comes to town.
The Canterbury Nursing Home in Phenix City lost power for several hours - which allowed residents to talk about the "good old days" when hardly anyone had electricity at all.
So how was my day Thursday, as Ivan caused a fuss all around? Don't worry, I kept track for you....
8:20 a.m.: I head out the door to go to breakfast, amid light rain and gusty wind. The church I attend still is planning a special "Feast of Trumpets" service for mid-afternoon, so I'm treating it like a regular worship day. Besides, listening to FM religious radio means you never hear a school cancellation.
(That reminds me: Muscogee County schools are CLOSED Friday and Saturday! Hopefully this announcement will reduce the dozens of calls to radio stations -- maybe by two or three.)
A few small scattered limbs are in the streets of the Historic District - and one trash can is tipped over along First Avenue. Those jail inmates on garbage duty can be SO sloppy and careless....
I'd picked the spot for this special breakfast a long time ago. I've heard a lot about Booth's Corner Café in Phenix City - but hardly any cars are parked outside when I arrive. When school is cancelled in Phenix City, it seems like the entire town sleeps in until 9:00 a.m.
There's only one couple eating in the restaurant, and Fox News Channel is showing reporters live along the Gulf Coast on the TV. Jonathan Serrie looks like he's on a video-phone - yet he says lights are still on in downtown Mobile. Truly that's a Democratic city. They won't let Fox News use electric plugs.
(By the way: if Fox News Channel is so pro-Republican, why did they have reporters along the Gulf Coast at all? You'd think conservative reporters would be as far inland as Montgomery.)
French toast is served by the one-armed chef/manager - and then the power flickers for a moment, but stays on. "Thank you, Jesus," says a woman in the corner booth. Perhaps she only had a credit card for paying the bill.
As I eat breakfast at the counter, who should walk in Booth's Corner Café but Thomas Weise - the best-known Catholic priest in the area. But the power keeps flickering occasionally off and on, so I'm not sure if he crossed himself before walking inside.
"You'd think being next door to the power company, they could keep your power on," Pastor Weise says to the manager.
"Yeah," the manager answers. "I also thought I could get a discount on my bill."
The Booth's Corner Café manager says he called Lowe's Monday about an electric generator, but "they just laughed at me." I wonder how many businesses became so desperate, they thought about hooking up mice and treadmills.
Thomas Weise recalls 25 years ago this week, when Hurricane Frederic ripped through south Alabama. He served with a Catholic charity, which helped evacuees at the Mobile Civic Center. So mark your calendar now - when September 2029 comes, take your vacation somewhere else.
I count 11 times the power flickers off and on during breakfast - yet only later do I realize Pastor Thomas Weise never once said thanks to Jesus when the power stayed on, while the earlier woman did. So who IS the more religious person of
the two?
10:45 a.m.: As I rest at home, the first storm warning I've heard today comes from the National Weather Service computer system. The voice on the radio these days sounds very human-like - but someone should tell it the Lee County seat is not called "Oh-PELL-ika."
A tornado warning is issued after a possible tornado is spotted on radar in the "Holy Trinity" area of Russell County. Huh? You mean there's still something religious in Alabama the atheists haven't removed?
11:05 a.m.: The tornado warning siren sounds at South Commons. I move under my computer room desk for cover - only to find I don't completely fit. So much for feeling so good about losing ten pounds.
11:50 a.m.: After a second tornado warning ends, the phone rings. The Local Elder from church tells me the special service is cancelled. And here I was all set to point fingers at everyone else, for lacking faith and wimping out.
The decision to call off the service goes against what I was praying in the hours before. Doesn't the Bible have examples where God protected His people, when they stepped out in faith and didn't show fear? And this was well before someone
invented mobile homes....
Since my power is still on, I decide to go online. The denomination I attend has several congregations which offer "cybercast" services - but the one I visit in Indiana won't let me in due to some kind of "missing component." I'm paying Real Networks $9.95 a month, and they left something out?!
So here's a special Holy Day for the church I attend, and I have no place to worship. I decide to listen to various radio preachers during the day - and they could get the offering money my congregation didn't want.
12:50 p.m.: During one of these radio programs, I decide I should eat out for lunch - just as I would have gone out to dinner after the scheduled afternoon service. If I wait until 5:00, all the nice restaurants might be closed. And on a special day like today, a bag of Cheese Krystals doesn't seem quite fitting.
1:00 p.m.: "You're gonna get wet!" says one of my neighbors safely on a porch as I head out the dinner for lunch. I have on a jacket with a hood. He offers me an umbrella - but I point out the wind will only blow it the other direction and tear it apart.
(I'm foolish, you say? Well, I was still being faithful even if my church congregation was not. To borrow a phrase, I won't let any hurricane steal my joy. Panhandlers maybe, but not hurricanes....)
Broadway has plenty of restaurants, I reason, so I'll pick a place there for lunch. I drive past Minnie's at Eighth and First -- which appears to be open, but probably has its smallest lunchtime crowd in months. When you can actually drive down First Avenue at lunch hour without worrying about hitting cars, that's small.
But there's a problem with my choice of a restaurant area. Almost all the stores along Broadway from 10th to 12th Street seem to be closed, with fire hoses on the street. I don't notice any damage - so perhaps this is the city's way to make sure The Loft doesn't become a giant swimming pool.
While many restaurants are closed, an old reliable remains open - the "bus station" Country's near 14th and Broadway. But the city's "streetscape" project makes me go practically around a block to park. Officials should be thankful hardly any TSYS employees live downtown.
After parking my car, I race for Country's in strong rain and wind - but when I reach shelter, I'm disappointed. It's the drive-through lane, and the two women standing outside are NOT guarding a door. Some smokers can't kick a habit, even in the worst of weather.
Through a muddy patch I walk to the FRONT door of Country's - and several people are eating there, but the restaurant isn't full. It turns out Country's plans to close at 3:00 p.m., because TSYS shut down for the day. So can we all pay our next credit card bills a couple of days late?
For some reason, the financial channel CNN-FN is on the big TV at Country's. But at a diner's request, it's changed to the Weather Channel. At the risk of losing some fans, I have to say it - drop-dead gorgeous meteorologist Alexandra Steele can show me a "warm front" anytime.
(In all the restaurants I've visited since Wednesday evening, I must note none of them had a Columbus station on. When bad weather comes, "First Alert" winds up in second place.)
One of the commercial breaks on the Weather Channel promoted United Methodist Churches, with their slogan: "Open hearts, open doors, open minds." Well, not quite - St. Luke's closed its school program for the storm.
The barbecue at Country's is as good as always - and as I leave, I tell the cashier it's definitely a "memorable day." She reluctantly agrees. Perhaps she only brought an umbrella, and didn't think about those high winds.
2:30 p.m.: At service time for our congregation, the rain almost has stopped and the wind isn't blowing too hard. I resist the urge to call the Local Elder and say, "I told you so." We're supposed to be "under authority" in this congregation.
3:15 p.m.: I post a few items to a church-related web site I have, and check for other online services. A San Diego congregation offers one at 5:30. Los Angeles has one at 6:00. I never guessed going to church would become like going to the multiplex.
4:05 p.m.: While waiting for one of these services to start, Pastor Terry Jefferson's broadcast begins on WHAL-AM. He says the only names given for churches in the Bible have cities in them, from the book of Revelation. Then why is HIS church called "Word of Revelation Ministries" - with no Columbus in the name at all?
Pastor Terry Jefferson goes on to say whether believers drink or smoke is "up to you" - then later calls it a shame that so many preachers today drink and smoke. His message was against church division, yet sometimes he sounds like his own
mind is in two parts.
4:30 p.m.: I call up an online service from Minnesota - but I show up in the middle of it. It turns out the 3:30 starting time on the computer screen was adjusted for my time zone from Central Time. Once again, you can't trust everything you read on the Internet.
The sermon speaker talks at length about the risk our country faces from climate change, a potential "super-volcano" off the west coast of Africa and mad cow disease. Truly a trip to church can offer comfort from stormy times....
5:30 p.m.: It's still relatively calm at the end of the online service, so I walk down the street to Spectrum for a snack. The Villa Nova package store has its mailbox blown off the wall, and seems to have part of its sign blown off as well. Across the street, it's a good thing baseball season is over - because Golden Park might have wet grounds for a month.
Inside Spectrum, an attendant says: "No one in Phenix City has any power." I tell her during the morning, some people did. She seems rather stunned by this. Maybe she meant the new mayor hasn't taken office yet.
(WXTX "News at Ten" reported about 6,000 Phenix City customers were without power Thursday night. That compares to about 12,000 in Auburn - apparently proving it pays for Phenix City to have only a two-year college.)
6:12 p.m.: Finally the power flickers at home for the first time. But it stays on all evening, despite a few momentary glitches at awkward times - such as right after I turn on the computer, meaning I have to let it restart for six minutes.
BLOG-BLAH-BLAH: Do you have a humorous "Ivan adventure" to share? Please e-mail us, and we'll share it with our readers....
© 2003-04 Richard Burkard, All Rights Reserved.