Emily's Blog: Dust Storm

I have to admit I've been in dust storms before. You cover your face so you don't have to breath it in and shield your eyes so you can see where you're going. However, I never expected to be caught in the middle of one in Barrow in the middle of winter. On top of that, I never expected to be caught in one inside. Thursday started out like any other day. I got up early, went to school and spent the first part of the day working with students before classes started. Homeroom class went fine. First period started. I finally had all the students working when we heard a loud bang. That alone is not unusual as my classroom is right next to the boiler room. I told them it was nothing and to keep working. Less than a minute latter there was another bang followed by a short rattling sound. I told my students I'd go see what was going on. But before I could even get to the door, a think yellow smoke came pouring out of the ceiling. Well, I figured that was a bad sign, told all my student to leave their stuff and get out. About this time the fire alarm sounded. We, along with some other classes, huddled in the kunichuk (arctic entryway) where there was not any gas coming, and waited to see what was going in. Well, to make a long story short, pipes on the air filtration system next to my room had exploded. the yellow gas that poured out was 25 years worth of dust and rust from the pipes. Everyone was corralled in the gym for about an hour and a half while they decided what to do. It was finally decided that it would take too long to fix all the mess and the students were sent home. We teacher got to stay. I took a few aftermath pictures of the incident. I wish I had some of the gas coming down. It looked cool. If I hadn't been so worried about my students I would have taken some. As one of my students commented, "I think this is what the gas chambers looked like."