Lightning struck my office building during Monday night's storm. According to a fellow trainer, the strike happened at 9:45 pm. He was in the bathroom and his description of the whole ordeal is quite entertaining - however quite irrelevant to the point of this post.
As a result of being struck by lightning, the building suffered a few traumatic side effects (assuming that buildings can experience trauma).
1. The electricity shut off the instant that lightning struck. This is really a given. Thankfully, we have a diesel generator that kicked in to restore power. Unfortunately, the lightning short circuited the automatic shut of switch that controlled the diesel generator. So, once normal electricity was available, the generator would not shut off and allow us to return to our normal electrical supply.
2. Verizon's phone services had issues, but that was true for most businesses in this area.
3. The power supply for the freshly repaired air conditioning was not connected to the diesel generator. It had been non-functional Monday morning. Yesterday morning it was functional, but had no power.
4. And the most noticeable of all lightning side effects: the elevator was broken. Actually, I think fried is a more applicable description.
Around noon, the elevator repair man was talking to our building's maintenance man - trying to figure out when the elevator would be fixed. Judging by the elevator repair man's response (Every time I push this button it shocks me!) ETA of repair was not any time soon. The repair man said that if it wasn't fixed by 5 pm, he would resume repairs the next morning. It was finally fixed at 5 pm.
Here is the e-mail sent to announce the elevator's repair.
From: Receptionist
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2007 5:02 PM
To: Everybody
Subject: Elevatot
Is now working. Please feel free to use as needed.
Thank you for you patience and cooperation today we all appreciate it.
Front Desk
Receptionist
Elevatot?!? If one is going to be a receptionist, proofreading is a handy skill. Otherwise, you get responses like this.
From: Smart Alec
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2007 5:04 PM
To: Receptionist & Everybody
Subject: RE: Elevatot
That’s good to hear, but how’s the Elevator coming along
Thank you,
Smart Alec
normal employee
You know the funny thing about your story is that this sort of thing is unusual for you. I can totally see that happening several times a week where I live! haha! Blessings!
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