It was a dark and stormy night…
…and I decided to stay a little late last night to finish up some work. Bad move. As I was literally about to walk out the door, the tornado sirens started to wail. That’s when I heard Lance running around yapping about a storm coming like it was the apocalypse. He had his laptop in hand with a weather radar map pulled up as he went around warning people not to leave.
That’s about when the power went out. Great… not only am I stuck at the office, I can’t even do any work. Evan in our anti-piracy department was super resourceful and utilized his mobile phone’s internet connection to keep working. Pirates beware – he is that dedicated to his job. The creepily dark office was like something out of Resident Evil or Left 4 Dead (I play too many zombie games). By this time you could really hear the wind howling and the rain hitting the building. Luckily we did have some emergency lighting, plus everyone used their phones as flashlights.
Tornado drills and precautions are fairly normal around these parts, so most of the remaining employees headed towards the center of the building and sound booths. Sound booths you say? Since they have thick, dense walls to reduce external noise during recording and mixing, they make a great tornado shelter (purely speculation). Imagine a bunch of FUNi employees including voice actors and directors just hanging around the halls and booths in the dark. A few of us just watched the storm from the lobby, including Aaron Dismuke who was lying on the floor for some reason. Caitlin Glass just chilled out in the hallway. I’m sure if it got really bad we’d have all crammed into the booths for an extreme walla session.
So as the storm raged on, we were getting a little bored. To entertain ourselves, the art dudes busted out the hackey sack in the hallway amidst the emergency lighting. That didn’t work out so great since it was so hard to see the beanbag, but it helped pass the time nonetheless. At this time, it was about 7:45pm and I basically skipped lunch. Luckily the digital video department had pizza. Thanks Margo. 
After wandering the office a bit more and pretending we were in a zombie invasion (or pretending we were zombies), the storm died down and I went home. Sorry for the anti-climactic ending, though sources say a tornado may have touched down nearby. The wind damage was pretty bad outside and I could see trees and stuff all knocked down and broken. Nothing out of the ordinary though.
So that’s that… and now we’re all back at work, safe and sound. Enjoy the storytime? I promise I didn’t make anything up. I’m not that creative.
37 Responses to “It was a dark and stormy night…”
FUNi PR gal on June 11th, 2009 at 5:32 pm says:
Haha! What fans don’t know is that there is no “closing time” at FUNimation! 
Rojas on June 11th, 2009 at 5:38 pm says:
I don’t have an ETA, but I do know we’re working hard to get the videos up.
@Kyoko
Honestly don’t know what they were working on. VAs and directors are always in and out over in production, while I’m usually secluded to my cube. It takes a lot of time to talk to fans over the interwebs. 
Chrisc on June 11th, 2009 at 5:54 pm says:
Bad joke, but the the whole One piece issue is the perfect response to Evans interview he did. I mean like One Piece not really being riped off but to show us what could happen.
A.C. Power on June 11th, 2009 at 9:13 pm says:
Glad to see you guys are ok. Wow that Evan, he is really dedicated to his work.
Soymilk Purin on June 12th, 2009 at 1:05 am says:
Wow, I can’t believe I missed all the fun. D:
I’m glad everything turned out okay, though.
Mario1-7 on June 12th, 2009 at 1:13 am says:
Who is EVAN?????
And Dudes Media Blasters is actually landing Attacks on FUNimation Entertainment. Talk about unprofessional huh. 
Animegirl on June 12th, 2009 at 9:39 am says:
lol.lol.
This sounded like a cool scary story in the begining. You should have finished it with a cool twited ending just for laughs!
UmmYeahOk on June 12th, 2009 at 4:09 pm says:
>>AND GO EVAN!!!!! FIND THOSE PIRATES!!!!!!
Hey Evan, I found them! They call themselves the Straw Hat Pirates. Their leader calls himself Monkey D. Luffy. And they can be found on the Grand Line. Go get em!!!
>>Who is EVAN?????
http://blog.funimation.com/2009/05/ann-interviews-evan-of-our-anti-piracy-team/
MeggieMay on June 14th, 2009 at 10:57 pm says:
Well I’m just glad everyone ended up OK. I am surprised at the people in the thread who don’t take Tornado Warning seriously. I don’t know what the problem is in their state but ignoring them where I live can lead to bad things happening 
.
UmmYeahOk on June 15th, 2009 at 12:01 pm says:
Yeah, its one thing to pretend to be zombies in the bathroom, but watching a possible tornadic storm through the lobby windows may not be such a good idea. I live around this area, and last year the sirens went off on 3 different days. It was the first time I have ever heard it when it wasnt a test day. Neither one had a confirmed tornado in the town. This may be why people ignored it, boy who cried wolf and all. But tornado or not, one of the sirens did alarm for a storm that had VERY damaging hail, and winds strong enough to blow out windows, tear off roofs, and BEND steel traffic light poles and signs. A tornado only occurs if the funnel touches the ground. If it doesnt touch the ground, its not a tornado. So people tend to not fear it.
I was parking my car when they alarm went off. I dropped what I was doing, didnt even get the mail, and went inside. When the alarm goes off, you have a 0-15 minutes to prepare. I threw my stuff on the floor, grabbed my phone and got in the tub. Once I was safe, I called my mommy Not because Im a wuss or anything, but 5 minutes before, we were together talking about how the conditions were right for a tornado, and with her driving in a car, I wasnt sure if she could hear it (I really cant hear it indoors, and when it rains, theres no way I can hear it at all.) I had to let her go though, because apparently she drove right through it, and several roads to her home were blocked with trees. That and cell phone + storm + driving, not a good combo. I dont think it had even started to rain here yet when I talked to her.
One of the bad things about not being able to hear the alarm well is 1) you wont hear it when youre asleep, 2) you wont hear it if theres rain, hail, or strong winds. 3) you wont hear it turn off. After 30-45minutes I risked leaving the safest place in my house to check the weather on the computer. The tornado warning was going to expire in like 5 minutes. I grabbed my rain coat to check the damage (light rain) and I noticed that my neighbor did the unthinkable… …when I dropped everything and ran inside due to the siren and green sky, he apparently had gone outside, put a tarp over his car, covering his windshield. His car was completely exposed to the elements had they been more severe, and if there had been quarter to baseball sized hail, his windsheild would still be cracked. So really, he risked his life for nothing, and there WAS a confirmed tornado 2 blocks away! Comforters really are the only way to go… …but due to the siren, I had no time, its not worth it, and people should know that.
Kaylin on June 16th, 2009 at 10:39 pm says:
Lol at aaron. Those sirens scared me :/ I was at drivers ed, and the instructors were all “If it gets bad, move the kids to the hallway!”
We’re sitting there in this tiny little building, barely any shelter at all, taking a permit test, and she starts going off on this and we’re FREAKING out. It was amusing.
pc_alchemist on June 17th, 2009 at 3:08 pm says:
I can just see Aaron laying on the floor whining about being bored. That was funny.
I remember when Tropical Storm Fay hit us. School was closed for a week and my poor little blue car was completely under water. 
The car horn hasn’t sounded the same ever sense then. The kids next door where swimming in the street. I wanted to go too but my mom said no. I guess people who live in areas where storms are the norm don’t really freak out about it. I know I never freak out when we get a storm warning and when I lived in Texas, tornado warnings didn’t bug me ether.
You guys sounded like you had fun. I wish I could have been there.
. So, wait how do you sign up? And how does this contest work(rules) and will anyone be able to enter this...