tomdinwv
Senior Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2008
- Messages
- 665
The storms that rolled through the Mid-Atlantic area Friday evening really tore stuff up around here. The Mrs. and I had went to our friends farm out in the middle of nowhere for a big picnic/party they throw every year. We were only going to go Saturday but, since we were childless and had nothing better to do, we went Friday evening and that's when the fun began. Sorry for the long story but here it is.
We arrived about 6:30 Friday evening, cracked open some cold ones and proceeded to set up our 2 popup awnings. There were about 20 other people there already and they had their tents set up and were hanging out talking and having a good time. Then, with little warning, my friend Tim lookes down the hollow and tells me to turn around and look. The sky was black. I mean BLACK. That's about when the wind, which had been non existent, started ripping through. There were 6 or 7 of us holding onto my 2 awnings, trying to keep them from blowing away. The rain started coming down like it was being poured from buckets. We got soaked from head to toe and decided the whole awning thing just wasn't going to work. We managed to drop them and fold them up and get them laid on the ground without incident.
Now, the Mrs and I were off to help Tim and his wife save their tent. That did not go well at all. We were all holding onto that thing for dear life, standing in the pouring rain with wind gusts of at least 50mph. Naturally, the tent was just a big sail and we were just trying to keep it from blowing away. Tim had 2 nice guitars in the tent in their cases and he was trying to save them. We were on one side and our wives were on the other. The wind had died down and we were trying to get the poles back in to the tent. Tim and I were holding this aluminum tent pole trying to get it back in when the lightning started. The look on his face was priceless as I'm sure the look on mine was too. We both decided we didn't want to be standing in the middle of a lightning storm holding a makeshift lightning rod so we decided to let the tent drop. At one point, a tree limb fell between Tim and the front of my truck, barely missing both. If it would have hit Tim, it would have been bad. Thank God it didn't.
In the middle of trying to save Tim's tent, his wife saw someone else's tent blowing around. It was basically standing on it front door. She ran over and grabbed it to try to keep it from blowing away. She was not successfull. The wind took it about 40 feet up in a tree and it came down and landed in the creek. Took 4 people to pull the water logged tent out of the creek and drain it after the storm was over.
All in all, we came through the storm okay. I had put our tent in the backseat of my truck, so after it was over we had a dry place to sleep. Lots of tree limbs down but no one where we were got hurt. Tim's guitars did get water in them. He was trying to get them dried out. Trees are down all over our area. At one point during the storm, it was reported that 85% of WV had no electric. We came home Saturday morning and we are one of the fortunate ones that still have electric. My neighbor has a large tree laying across his house. Never seen a storm like the one we rode out Friday and hope I never see another one. We did go back out to the farm Sat. evening and had a great time. They had 2 live bands and lots of good food. Can't wait for next years party. It'll be hard to top this year's.
We arrived about 6:30 Friday evening, cracked open some cold ones and proceeded to set up our 2 popup awnings. There were about 20 other people there already and they had their tents set up and were hanging out talking and having a good time. Then, with little warning, my friend Tim lookes down the hollow and tells me to turn around and look. The sky was black. I mean BLACK. That's about when the wind, which had been non existent, started ripping through. There were 6 or 7 of us holding onto my 2 awnings, trying to keep them from blowing away. The rain started coming down like it was being poured from buckets. We got soaked from head to toe and decided the whole awning thing just wasn't going to work. We managed to drop them and fold them up and get them laid on the ground without incident.
Now, the Mrs and I were off to help Tim and his wife save their tent. That did not go well at all. We were all holding onto that thing for dear life, standing in the pouring rain with wind gusts of at least 50mph. Naturally, the tent was just a big sail and we were just trying to keep it from blowing away. Tim had 2 nice guitars in the tent in their cases and he was trying to save them. We were on one side and our wives were on the other. The wind had died down and we were trying to get the poles back in to the tent. Tim and I were holding this aluminum tent pole trying to get it back in when the lightning started. The look on his face was priceless as I'm sure the look on mine was too. We both decided we didn't want to be standing in the middle of a lightning storm holding a makeshift lightning rod so we decided to let the tent drop. At one point, a tree limb fell between Tim and the front of my truck, barely missing both. If it would have hit Tim, it would have been bad. Thank God it didn't.
In the middle of trying to save Tim's tent, his wife saw someone else's tent blowing around. It was basically standing on it front door. She ran over and grabbed it to try to keep it from blowing away. She was not successfull. The wind took it about 40 feet up in a tree and it came down and landed in the creek. Took 4 people to pull the water logged tent out of the creek and drain it after the storm was over.
All in all, we came through the storm okay. I had put our tent in the backseat of my truck, so after it was over we had a dry place to sleep. Lots of tree limbs down but no one where we were got hurt. Tim's guitars did get water in them. He was trying to get them dried out. Trees are down all over our area. At one point during the storm, it was reported that 85% of WV had no electric. We came home Saturday morning and we are one of the fortunate ones that still have electric. My neighbor has a large tree laying across his house. Never seen a storm like the one we rode out Friday and hope I never see another one. We did go back out to the farm Sat. evening and had a great time. They had 2 live bands and lots of good food. Can't wait for next years party. It'll be hard to top this year's.
