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Nose for News by Sarah Stultz

I knew we’d be in for an interesting evening when I walked out the door and headed for City Hall on Monday.

The weather forecasts were predicting that storms would be moving into the area between 5 and 6 p.m., so I decided to get to the building toward the beginning of that window and avoid a potential downpour, though the Albert Lea City Council workshop didn’t start until 5:30 p.m.

I got situated and before the meeting started learned we were in a severe thunderstorm warning from Public Safety Director J.D. Carlson, who usually sits at the back table where I take notes during the workshop.

Then 5:30 p.m. rolled around, and the council started the workshop.

The councilors were discussing the option of starting a stormwater utility in Albert Lea as a few of us at the back of the room watched and listened as the weather warnings come into the area.

I’ll be honest, I was a little distracted — I get kind of paranoid about weather events after working as a journalist over the years and covering the devastation from several tornadoes — and before we knew it, 45 or 50 minutes had passed. I watched outside the large windows in the Council Chambers as the sky turned darker and darker. It was a pretty angry-looking sky, and something was clearly on its way.

Then, the warnings started getting closer, and we saw an alert come over our phones that a tornado warning was issued for western Freeborn County. A few minutes later, the sirens went off for Albert Lea, which meant we were in a tornado warning, too.

At the direction of J.D., we filed down to the first level of the building into what is known as Room 109 across from the Engineering Department, where we stayed for the duration of the warning.

Someone pulled out some Girl Scout cookies and passed those around, and most people were pretty laid back, checking for updates on their phones.

I tried making a few updates on the Tribune’s website, but was having problems connecting to the Wi-Fi, so I then moved to my phone. It was a little more work, but it got the job done.

The warning came and went, and most went out to look and see what was happening outdoors. Some reports of hail came back to those of us still sitting in the room.

By 7:25 p.m. or so, everyone was back up in the Council Chambers, along with a few others who had trickled in, and it was business as usual from that point forward.

Who would have thought we’d be in the basement of City Hall with the City Council during a tornado warning? I certainly hoped it wouldn’t come to that but ultimately am grateful we didn’t get the tornadoes that had been in the forecast.

There’s another memory for the books.

Sarah Stultz is the managing editor of the Tribune. Her column appears every Wednesday.