K-State Tornado

Our college Alma Matter, K-State (Kansas State University), was hit by a tornado last night and several campus buildings and a fraternity were damaged. The news story covering the damage and listing the buildings damaged brought back memories for me.

Travis lived in an apartment building while he was in college right across the street from the Sig Ep fraternity that was damaged. Of course, we attended classes in most of the buildings damaged on campus while attending K-State.

I HAVE actually been inside the building housing the nuclear reactor! We put these little radiation counters inside our pockets upon entering the room with the reactor, then returned them to their key hooks when we left. The people in charge of the reactor monitor amounts of radiation picked up on the counters. The counters are also a reassurance measure for those visiting the reactor, as they show how minute of an amount of radiation the reactor puts off, even when you're standing right above it. I do remember getting a little nervous when we were touring the reactor. The reactor is insulated by water. In other words, the water "absorbs" the radiation the reactor is creating. I don't remember how many feet of water were between us and the nuclear reactor (as we were standing on top looking down at it), but I DO remember them telling us not to get too close to the water. They didn't want us to fall in and die. They described in detail what would happen if we were 1ft, 2ft, 3ft, etc. from the reactor inside the insulating water. Let's just say we all took a few steps back while the guide was talking.

Lastly, I am mourning the loss of all of the beautiful trees the tornado destroyed. You see, I was a "tree hugger" in college. No, I'm not a radical environmentalist. I took Woody Plants 201 and 301 while in Landscape architecture. We toured the campus three times a week as our teacher taught us about specimen trees planted all over campus. I have the scientific and common names of lots of trees and shrubs (we were not allowed to call them bushes!) in my brain. The campus had a live specimen of almost every tree in our books planted in the landscape throughout the campus. I bet my favorite, the Tulip Tree (tilia cordata), is still standing on the east side of campus opposite of where the tornado uprooted trees.

Here's a link to the news story and some pictures from a Wichita news station: