the rains came down...

...and the floods came up. yesterday afternoon. in my office building. about twenty feet from where i was sitting.

there was a long, loud sound that was like a lot of rushing air, kind of like someone pulled the plug on an air compressor.
then the fire alarm started going off in all of its piercing, annoying, screeching glory.

and then the waterfall started.

we spent the next half an hour or so standing outside, freezing cold, just waiting to hear what happened while five fire trucks, an ambulance, and several police cars filled our parking lot. we could see water was pouring down into the office below ours, and even coming out the tops of the downstairs windows.

apparently a pipe burst in the ceiling, which proceeded to leave one half of our office (the half i work on) under up to 2 inches of water in some places.

by some sort of miracle (or maybe just a bunch of IT people staying at the office til 2am) the servers were brought back online, an emergency plan was put into effect, and we were all able to come into work this morning - almost just like normal. it looks like a warzone on our side of the building. there are big fans and dehumidifiers everywhere, piles of wet plans, a big dumpster outside, ladders, down ceiling tiles, an awful stench, and oh yeah a big hole in the ceiling in the Structures Department.

we all put our personal effects in a box (it felt oddly like getting fired) and moved to our new homes for the next few weeks and/or months. they have us all set up at temporary work stations, mostly on the other side of the office which was untouched and still dry. i'm currently set up in the lunch room, and i actually kind of like it. can you say floor-to-ceiling window seat? oh yeah. i might actually be a little sad when they get everything gutted and rebuilt to the point where we can go back to normal for real and i'm back in my lonely no-view cubicle... but for now the big question around the office is "what about the Christmas party?"