Let's shop during a tornado

[Sapphire Silk]

He arrived, and in turns accused us of being "cowards" and "stupid" for not delivering him a pizza, and berating us for "making" him risk his life and safety picking up a pizza.

He had a very punchable face.

I consider that one of my life's great missed opportunities.

Oh, so you should risk a driver's life because HE'S too chickenshit to make the drive himself . . . and too stupid to realize NO ONE should be out on the roads???

[raudf]

When I worked for the repair center, I had some extra jobs that most clerks didn't quite have.. mostly because by this time, my Dad was a key holder, had been moved up front to the office, but to keep ME (the techs nearly rebelled one time because I quit), he was still a tech, but did the office stuff on the manager's day off. It wound up two clerks and him, for Saturdays and that's what day this was.

The weather had been... interesting to say the very least. We weren't supposed to have a radio on in the office, but Dad said screw that and had it on so we could hear the updates on watches and warnings so we could advise techs when to haul butt out of an area or call ahead to see if the call's power was on (a whole other issue with the stupid suckies!). Several reported pulling over for hail, so... yeah.

Well, closer to closing time, our power started flickering. Electronics and appliance techs can't work without power, fancy that So the power finally died and well, Dad calls the store, gets approval to close 15 minutes early. Since I ride with Dad, I pull the till via the nice little override button in the back and he'll do the paperwork on Monday, since even the store can't pull the info from our register. We take the money over to the store to drop off when the sirens start sounding.

Yep, we were in the store, since Dad wanted to speak to the store manger about our issue. The store manager and sales reps start trying to shoo people down to the basement area. It was like watching dogs trying to herd very stupid headless chickens! Customers wanted to continue shopping, screw the incoming tornado! Naow, naow, naow! Nevermind that the registers were in the emergency lock mode, so nothing could be rung up, even if the SM was stupid enough to force his staff to stay up there.

Fortunately for said headless chickens the tornado missed us by going into another section of the town, but was still very visible from the store, or so said the SM, his assistant, and mall security. Unfortunately for the staff... they got chewed loudly for keeping their "customers" from shopping during what might have been a perfect setup for a Darwin Award.

[Racket_Man]

Oh, so you should risk a driver's life because HE'S too chickenshit to make the drive himself . . . and too stupid to realize NO ONE should be out on the roads???

tornados, blinding blizzards, torrential rain??? what is the difference to an SC EVEN when the local public safety (meaning citys AND counties) tell people to stay off the road AND THEY MEAN IT. THEY ARE THE CUSTOMER and need to be obeyed

hell the city shut down the public bus system AND told people NOT go out unless it was an emergancy for over 24 hours during a really nasty bilzzard 2 years ago BUT our the franchise AND customers demanded we go out and make deliveries.

Remember you are just some faceless insignificant robot that no one cares about unless you do NOT do your job.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Reminds me of the time I was working in the garden centre and there was a flood warning. It had been pissing down with rain for about a week, and we'd just heard a message on local radio that the local river was about to burst its banks. If that happened, then everyone who lived in the next town over wouldn't be able to get home, so we evacuated... or tried to. Customers were whining, "But I wanna finish shopping!" and refusing to leave so in the end we just said "Fuckit" and turned off all the lights then, when the customers moved to the front, told them to leave now cuz unlike them, we wanted to be able to get home. Some idiots still tried to ring up the next day to complain, but since the manager and half the staff were trapped in the next town after the river burst its banks, the store was closed and there was no-one there to hear it. XD

[mharbourgirl]

Lord love a duck, people are stupid.

Look, I grew up in a region where earthquakes, floods and thunderstorms were common. I moved to a region where blizzards and hurricanes were common. I've survived everything that nature has seen fit to throw at me in my 42 years.

Ten or so years ago a weak tornado touched down in Windsor, NS and moved someone's garden shed a few feet. I damn near had a panic attack when I heard the story. Tornadoes scare the ever-livin' crap out of me and I've never actually seen one for real. I've just watched town after town get destroyed, including the OKC disaster a few years ago, thanks to this thing called 'television', and I am NEVER visiting flat places. Never. I don't have to be sucked up in a vortex to know that it would be a very bad thing.

I don't care if people look at me funny, I'm still alive, aren't I?

[wagegoth]

Tornadoes? No, thanks, I'd rather live with the earthquakes.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

And here I'm one of those people who thinks going on a storm-chasing expedition is something I might be interested in doing one day.

Speaking of Earthquakes, there's a small city in Wisconsin that recently experienced strange underground booming sounds that have been attributed to minor earthquakes.

Being as I'm on a lake, this means if the Big One ever hits anyplace reasonably close to me, I'll either fall into the lake or get drowned in a tsunami.

[NotAlBundy]

Oh, I would LOVE to go storm chasing. With an experienced person. When a tornado's gonna wipe out my store, I'm taking cover.

[Racket_Man]

And here I'm one of those people who thinks going on a storm-chasing expedition is something I might be interested in doing one day.

Voluntary going on a storm chasing journey is one thing (Yes that is something I would also like to do) but doing it INvoluntay as in in the course of my job is still not something I relish.

Speaking of Earthquakes, there's a small city in Wisconsin that recently experienced strange underground booming sounds that have been attributed to minor earthquakes.

Being as I'm on a lake, this means if the Big One ever hits anyplace reasonably close to me, I'll either fall into the lake or get drowned in a tsunami.

I doubt the BIG one will occur in our state. it is the New Madrid Fault in southern Missouri that worries me. a nice 8.0 or 8.2 down there will really be felt up here. Heck in 1811-12 the quake that hit there rang church bells on the northern east coast.

[tropicsgoddess]

Clearly somebody has their priorities fucked up.

[Jay 2K Winger]

I doubt the BIG one will occur in our state. it is the New Madrid Fault in southern Missouri that worries me. a nice 8.0 or 8.2 down there will really be felt up here. Heck in 1811-12 the quake that hit there rang church bells on the northern east coast.

I'm convinced the Big One will hit the New Madrid as well.

There was a novel I read once, "The Rift" by Walter Jon Williams, which was about a series of earthquakes that hit the New Madrid and what happened in the aftermath. (One bit of sad irony: one of the main characters is a teenager from California whose hippie mother moved them to Missouri because she was convinced the "big one" would hit California.)

[cashierbex]

Storm chasing would be fun, with experts.

People just don't care about who lives anymore. Its sad.

[Kristev]

Maybe they're trying to play shop until the roof drops . . . right on top of them.

[wagegoth]

Speaking of Earthquakes, there's a small city in Wisconsin that recently experienced strange underground booming sounds that have been attributed to minor earthquakes.

Are they doing fracking anywhere in the area?

Quoth Jay 2K Winger
I'm convinced the Big One will hit the New Madrid as well.

There was a novel I read once, "The Rift" by Walter Jon Williams, which was about a series of earthquakes that hit the New Madrid and what happened in the aftermath. (One bit of sad irony: one of the main characters is a teenager from California whose hippie mother moved them to Missouri because she was convinced the "big one" would hit California.)

The Bay Area tends to ride out most quakes without a lot of damage as we're sitting on granite, well, most of us, landfill turns into slurry during a quake.

The danger of the New Madrid fault is that the whole area has a limestone base, filled with caves, left over from the ancient sea that filled the middle of North America. It will literally collapse during a quake, and former hills can quickly become plains, and flatlands turn into valleys and new routes for rivers.

[Jay 2K Winger]

The Bay Area tends to ride out most quakes without a lot of damage as we're sitting on granite, well, most of us, landfill turns into slurry during a quake.

The danger of the New Madrid fault is that the whole area has a limestone base, filled with caves, left over from the ancient sea that filled the middle of North America. It will literally collapse during a quake, and former hills can quickly become plains, and flatlands turn into valleys and new routes for rivers.

I didn't know all of that. Most of "The Rift" deals with the social fall-out of such a thing. There's a lot of parallel stories going on-- the two main characters are the aforementioned white teenager and a black man who travel down the Mississippi to try to find the latter's family, but other stories feature an Army Corps of Engineers commander trying to keep the disasters from piling on top of one another, a nuclear plant engineer trying to keep the reactor from going into meltdown, a Sheriff in the KKK who organizes a genocide, a crazy Rapture preacher, among others.