Exciting Day
Our first full day in Omaha was exciting to say the least. There was a terrible storm and a fire in our hotel. We also saw a car accident and a woman hit by a car. We also saw a new movie, WALL-E.
In the afternoon, right before I jumped in the pool, there was an announcement at the pool about a tornado warning and everyone had to get off the pool deck. There was a really strong storm headed our way with 80-90 mile-per-hour winds. The storm was so strong that it ripped large parts of the Qwest Center building right off. We actually were wondering if they were going to be able to have a meet if the damage was too severe. It turns out that the building will be fine though and the meet will go on as planned.
After the storm passed and we left the pool we were supposed to go to dinner on the other side of Omaha. On the way we had to pass right through the path of the storm. Power was out to most areas on the way out and the streetlights weren’t working. This is probably what caused the car accident that we drove by. Then a little later on there was a pedestrian in the middle of the road who was hit by a car. We passed dozens of downed trees and several of them blocked roads, altering our route. We finally got to a point where the police blocked off the road we were on and we couldn’t find a road that headed in the right direction that was clear. At that point we figure that we just weren’t meant to head out that way. So we headed back to downtown where out hotel is to eat.
After eating we walked back to our hotel to find fire trucks outside and everyone loitering outside the hotel. It turned out that some water had gotten into the basement of the hotel and run into the circuit breaker causing it to smoke. It was probably 45 minutes before we were allowed to return to the hotel. In the meantime we watched as the bride and groom from the wedding party that was at to hotel at the time took pictures with the fire trucks.
What a crazy day. Hopefully we have all our hiccups out of the way at this point and everything will go smoothly from here on out. I’m getting ready to have my first race of the meet tomorrow morning, the 400 IM. It is the event that I have been most looking forward to and I’m feeling pretty good.