Growing up in eastern Pennsylvania, a fan of the Philadelphia Eagles, he had seen weather like this on television from Giants Stadium - papers swirling at the base of the grandstand, flags at opposite ends of the stadium flapping in opposite directions, faces red and eyes bloodshot from the force of the intractable wind.

The heat inside was astonishing, smoke and embers and flecks of burning paper swirling around him, and he realized that the flames weren't the worst problem-the heated air and lack of oxygen were going to knock him out in minutes.

There were thuds and thumps, the rustling sounds of sheaves of paper swirling about in a storm.

There were all those bits of paper swirling around him like a whirlpool.

Just as the day turned from pleasant to ominous, with papers swirling around Lincoln Financial Field and a delay for lightning, Johns Hopkins's magical season almost did as well.

He clawed his way back toward the tear in the wall in a blizzard of papers swirling through the dome.