We're alive

Hey all. This is just a brief 'I'm okay' post. The meat packing plant in the city where Mark and I, and Jake, and our parents, and our friend (long time friend of Dark Dreamer) Vonn and lots of other people we know live... anyhow... the plant caught on fire last night. It started between the roof and sprinklers, and after about ten hours the roof started to give way and the sprinkler system stopped working. Thankfully, no fatalities, just lots of people evacuated while they work on the fire. The biggest problem was ammonia tanks located in the next building over, but they are optimistic that they've contained it from going further.

So far, not sure what we're planning to do. Mark and I aren't able to get back into the city, but we did make it in right before evac to get the cats and birds out, along with my laptop and flashdrives, and the paperwork for the house. I can now answer the question 'if you have five minutes, what do you take with you?' -- the only other thing I wanted to grab but couldn't fit into the car was the banner Jake made me for Christmas. I stood at the door looking at it for a few moments before the guy pounding doors in the hallway shouted that we had to go.

But, we're okay, and we've had offers from two of my coworkers to come crash at their places. The pets are with Mark's mom, but she lives in an efficiency, so there's really no where for us there. (All else fails, there is a couch in the library....)

*hugs to everyone*