ah, the workload for controllers is raised when thunderstorms come through, coordinating for turns, climbs, deviations for wx, its a lotta stuff, luckily that day it wasnt busy at the airport. the only time im aware of where we can leave the tower is when wind is sustained at 55knots. the tower was actually struck by lightning a few weeks ago and shorted out the local controllers jack (where they plug into) but he didnt get hurt, so usually whenever storms roll through we go onto hand held radios. i dont know anything about that '98 storm.
thanks for the welcome to the site, i usually listen to myself here and there to see how i sound. i just started there since january and working my way to finish the tower in the next few months. i was working during teh storm a few weeks ago when the hail moved through, visibility dropped from 10 miles to 1/8 in seconds