mjhoward

Holy sh*t, what a weekend. We've finally gotten our Internet service restored early this morning and I'm just now getting to read the comments. Believe it or not, today was also the first day I've gotten to see what actually happened just a few miles from my home.

Early Saturday morning, around 1-1:15 am, my phone went off with the tornado warning as it sometimes does when thunderstorms pop up in this area. I was planning to ignore it and rolled back over in bed, when less than a minute later, the tornado sirens went off. At that point I thought I'd better get dressed and put some shoes on, and then turned on the local news. The weatherman showed the radar where two confirmed tornadoes were on the ground headed our way and with the sirens still going off in the background, I got my dog on a leash and our cat in her crate so that if something were to happen, we would hopefully not lose them in the storm.

After a few more minutes the weather station cut to one of the cameras outside their building and they told viewers to pay attention to a dark mass to the right when the lighting strikes lit up the sky. I told my wife that I really thought that may be a tornado on camera, and a few seconds later the broadcast cut out and our power started surging off and on. After that we knew we'd better get in the closet under our staircase, figuring that was the safest place, and waited. After not hearing anything for 5-10 minutes, we got out and looked outside, and everything seemed pretty normal. Our Internet service was out but we still had power and spotty cell service. Thats when I was first able to see some of the reports of what had happened on the other side of town on Twitter. From what I could read that night, it sounded like there was definitely some damage along its path, but it didn't sound as bad as what it turned out to be.

The next morning, we could hardly use our cell phones and bringing up any websites or news articles was impossible, so we were still mostly in the dark about the extent of what had happened. On our side of the city, things still seemed relatively normal, even after getting out to get groceries. But we were also intentionally trying to avoid any areas we knew had been effected because we didn't want to get in the way of any rescue or cleanup efforts by first responders. It wasn't until our Internet service was restored early this morning that we were able to start looking through news articles, photos, and videos of what had happened. I now know just how lucky we were. Unfortunately, there were others that weren't nearly as lucky

Michael A

WOW!

Are you near Bowling Green?

LIE2ME

[PIC] Sign for Corvette Assembly Plant Tours Found 30 Miles Away - Corvette: Sales, News & Lifestyle (corvetteblogger.com)

pa.driven

Definitely have the same outlook. From what I am reading, they are "hoping" to restart 12/20. What that looks like in regards to capacity, priority, or even viability of it happening is a mystery...

https://www.autoblog.com/2021/12/13/...rvette-museum/
"The automaker is aiming to restart production on December 20"
https://driving.ca/auto-news/industr...tornado-damage
"GM has yet to confirm when production will resume, though it’s predicted things could be back on track by December 20. The automaker is expected to provide an update in the coming days"

Broken Halo

I'm sure she could sell that as a nice collector piece.

Vetteman Jack

The power of Mother Nature is amazing.

blueapplepaste

My first thought of C8 stuff was we could lose weeks, if not months, of production. I’ll be blown away if it’s just a single week.

Though I wonder if they wouldn’t be better served to just shut things down this year and give an extra couple of weeks to ensure things really are in working order and be ready Jan 3 to hit ground running.

MPSmith1

Based on the reported extent of damages, IMO the most important factor will be availability of employees. So many people were affected at their own homes. I feel for them. :-(

DebRedZR1

the disaster is bad enough. Please don’t compound it by arguing. If there is a post in violation of the RULES ( not your personal thoughts) hit the report button.
Lots of loss here and people concerned about resuming production. It can be discussed without personal attacks.

Bird67

We all can project the myriad pressures that will shape that decision - profit motives/market needs, labor relations considerations, supply chain reliability, condition of each and every machine on the assembly line; plus the human side of living and working in a devastated community and the optics of opening too soon against the afore-mentioned market pressures. So none of us can know, obviously, there's nothing wrong with wondering openly among common-interested friends on a Corvette forum. It's how humans process uncertainty and stress.

Jaxgator1975

MJhoward, glad you made it through without harm. Living in Florida hurricanes are devastated but at least we have plenty of warning and time to prepare. These dang tornados just pop up and you have minutes or seconds to respond. I hope that things can get back to normal for all the people up there as soon as possible. I am sure getting the plant back online will help anchor the surrounding area and provide some of that normalcy. God bless them all up there. I am curious to see how quickly GM can get things back up and running. I will guess that they can get things back up and running by 1/3/22. I hope all those people that have cars built can pick them up as soon as possible as well.

Cheers!

mjhoward

Yea, I live in Bowling Green just a few miles from the path of the tornado. My old house was missed by just a couple thousand feet.

Bird67

MJ, are you able to provide any human-scale intel about how BG is faring? For example - are utilities back on in most people's homes? Are the roads cleared of downed wires and debris? Are stores open and stocked, and gas stations functioning? I can imagine the big box building supply stores must be decimated...

I ask because it seems like many here have experienced some form of natural disaster in our communities so we know what it feels like. Even knowing the grocery store is open, with supplies on the shelves, can be a comfort to many who were spared the worst. With our 24 hour news cycle there doesn't seem to be much updating on how things are going in and around BG, so if you feel like sharing, please do.

Fast Dawg

I've seen several posts in this and other threads that Shane from the Museum is sending out emails. The good news is that he is OK and hopefully suffered no damage to his home. I've also read either in this forum or on FB that Jack Cooper is still picking up and transporting Corvettes that were built, so that is good news as well. I would think that as GM determines which cars sitting on their lots are ready to ship they will load them up and get them moving to their destination. I would hope the cars stuck in quality control holds for something that can be completed at a dealer's service department would be shipped as well.

My personal opinion is that GM will be very thorough and careful in it's assessment of the plant to ensure that when they do reopen the plant the employees will be 100% safe. I don't know if we have anyone on this forum with the qualifications to give an educated guess on how long that might take in this situation. I have learned a lot over the years about how barometric pressure effects different things on the ground during intense storms but I have no idea how any of the equipment inside that plant could be affected.

I can tell you from experience that when low skilled labor is laid off they tend to go find other work as quickly as possible. Their loyalty to a job is nil compared their ability to support their families. The job market is wide open with many low skilled positions open now all over the country, so GM's ability to open the plant sooner vs later will be determined by how long it will take to reopen it safely. I spent my career at UPS. When our workforce went on strike in 1997 for two weeks we lost almost 60% of our lower paid positions in our largest facilities. It took us a few months to get back to full operating capacity. I was an HR Manager and me and my people were working seven day weeks trying to staff operations.

I'm sure we will learn more as the week progresses. I hate it for those of you who only have TPWs. The wait for these cars has been unbelievable.

Justin B

BGA Roof

Bird67

1/17/22 TPW here. My candid assessment is, truly, "it is what it is." Distraction-by-Corvette has been a way of life for quite some time now, and yet another disruption has long been "normal." If this disaster means C8 production is slowed by only 2 weeks, I'm ok with that if it reflects that the affected communities' recoveries are swift. If C8 production is slowed by a month or more, I'll be aware of it and will monitor and discuss it openly here with all of you, because I know that all of us recognize that the time delay is meaningless given the reason it occurs.

EasyLivin

I can't imagine all these potentially hundreds or even thousands of people who were displaced from their homes that will be forced to live in shelters long term especially with the current housing shortage... Even if their insurance covers temporary housing or they have the means there's certainly no guarantee that they can find anything.

mjhoward

Overall, Bowling Green actually didn't fair too badly. Luckily the tornado here seemed to be a relatively narrow path compared to the 3/4-1 mile wide it was at some places. The more commercialized/retail part of the city where Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, etc. area didn't get touched. When we went out for groceries this past weekend, all of those places were up and running normally and we were mostly able to get what we needed. There were certain items that were more scarce like ground beef, beans, etc. But it wasn't from hoarding (like when Covid first hit), it was businesses, churches, etc. buying that stuff to make chili and other 'big batch' food to give out to those affected, so people were being taken care of.

I can't speak first hand to how cleanup efforts are going in the hardest hit areas because those roads are closed off and we don't want to be in the way (they've mentioned 'disaster tourists' being in the way periodically). From what I can tell, things are actually progressing rather quickly though.... Right after the storm, I think I remember seeing ~20k homes without power and now they are down to ~800 without power: . Our cell service is much improved and we also have Internet service restored, although I know there are certain areas that still don't have Internet. We also know a few people that lost parts of their roofs and sustained other damage, and when talking to them it sounded like they were already working with their insurance companies and starting on repairs. Though, I imagine the hardest hit homes that were basically leveled will be months before they're rebuilt.

As far as BGA specifically, I had read that GM was trucking in a lot of supplies from some of their other facilities in TN and MI to help get things back up and running as quickly as possible. We know someone that has worked there since the plant was built here in BG and he will be going in today for the first time since the tornado hit, so hopefully we will hear more from him after he's able to take a look. I think I also saw that the museum was already opening back up.

Corvette ED

I have 5 cars built sitting at the plant. One left Sunday and I should get it today. I have two others that left the plant last night and I should have them tomorrow. The last two were just built on Thursday and they are suppose to leave on Friday. I will ask the drivers if the shipping yard got any damage.

Justin B

Really good to hear ppl are still getting their cars shipped.