The wind began to switch, the house to pitch and suddenly the hinges started to unhitch.  Just then the Witch, to satisfy an itch went flying on her broomstick, thumbing for a hitch. – Dorothy, Wizard of Oz

Local TV coverage of Friday night’s storms continued all day Saturday. In the daylight they had better footage to see, than they did last night. Apparently, a F4 tornado hopped across north Saint Louis County, damaging or destroying hundreds of homes, businesses and the Saint Louis airport. Fortunately, there have been no reports of loss of life and also no life threatening injuries.

The airport remained closed on Saturday, but officials hope to reopen it on Sunday. The local TV had some rather dramatic video, from the airport’s various security camera video feeds. This sequence of videos caught the airport at the moment of the tornado’s impact. TSA officers are seen scurrying for cover, as flying glass swirls about. The terminal at Lambert Airport was a groundbreaking design. In the 1950s, Minoru Yamasaki was responsible for its design. As beautiful as the terminal building might look, its heavy reliance upon glass does not make for user-friendly architecture in a tornado. Half of the glass windows are estimated to have been blown out by the storm.

I work across the field from this scene of destruction, so I called the employee emergency hotline, just to see if there was any news there. The hotline reported only minor damage and limited power outages. On Monday, off to work I go.

In other news, apparently Dave is in Manhattan this weekend. We had a Facebook sighting that he and some former Maplewood-Blue Devils were having dinner near the East Village. He is going to Rochester next weekend. Anne is trying to coordinate a family Memorial Day weekend road trip to Saugatuck, MI and West Lafayette, IN. Our thoughts were to take Dan to Oxbow and on the way, take Dave by Purdue, plus spend some time in Chicago. We’ll see how well this conjunction of the stars works out.

Under the rubric of corrections, I’d like to offer the following clarifications. Oxbow is not an art camp for rich people, but for serious artists, like Dan. At Purdue, Dave will be working with chinchillas and not mice. Sorry for the errors.