Videogames save lives in New Orleans tornado

I'm not making up any part of that headline. Last night at about 3AM, many folks in New Orleans woke up to the sound of a tornado.

Uptown, Westwego, and Gentilly all suffered damage. Specifically, folks still in FEMA trailers (STILL!) found their trailers turned over, moved, smashed, bashed, and generally in disarray. A motel full of people with no homes nor trailers due to Katrina had its roof pulled off. At least one woman is dead. Some 20-30 thousand people have no power. The Picayune says that there was a touchdown very near to an old apartment of mine.

One friend of mine was woken up by another friend of mine at 5AM because his roof came off and he needed a place to crash. As far as I know, everyone is okay.

How do videogames save lives? Well, as I hear it, there was a kid up late playing videogames in his trailer when the tornado came through. He woke up the other people in the trailer, and evidently they all took cover. When my friend's roof crashed through their trailer, it crushed the bed where they were sleeping. If the kid hadn't been up playing videogames to wake them, they might've been killed. True story as it was told to me.

So let this be a lesson: Always have one person in your household up late, playing videogames, to keep an ear out for tornados. It might just save your life.