on the way to the kansas city airport this morning, hoping to fly home, the guy driving me had to take a (longer) alternate route when he heard a tornado had touched down nearby. shortly after arriving at the airport, rain and hail fell from the sky with the fury of a death-metal band. and now, sitting in the gate area, the entire airport just lost electrical power (no lights, no computers, no security). this is not a good sign for an on-time departure.

UPDATE: more than an hour later, we’re still sitting in the semi-dark. but now an alarm is ringing, and a recorded voice is telling us there is a fire, and we have to leave. no one is leaving. now they’re saying it’s not really a fire, but tsa needs us to leave, then come back through security – WAIT, they just changed their minds and said we could stay. but still no power.

UPDATE: the power in the airport just came back on. the entire airport broke into cheers. never heard that in an airport before.