We had a great time only we got to the gorge a little later than expected but Saturday was awesome. Perfect May weather. We walked around the whole park (well drove and walked). Found a great camp site and saw some awesome scenery. I even scaled a small rock free hand. We grilled some dogs (hot dogs you sickos) and dranks some drinks and before we knew it we were out of TP, drinks and smokes so we figured... time for bed. Only we did not realize the storm was a brewing. Ill just let Devine's email tell the tale for she did it so well....
Around 9:45am, I woke up to rain pounding on our tent. I heard it and remember thinking “why is it raining right now?”. That’s when Andrea nudged me to wake up. I lifted my head and looked at her like, “What is going on? It’s not supposed to rain until later on today.” And she returned the look as if to say, “I know! What is this crazy weather??” And just then it started howling and wind started gusting all around us, trying to lift our tent up. So we had to seriously hold the tent down with our bodies on either side, to keep it from lifting up with us inside. Andrea was incredibly nervous and didn’t want us to move, and I was sortof just waiting it out, unsure of what was really happening. That was when it started hailing on top of us like someone was throwing sticks and stones at our tent. What?? Tornado never even really crossed my mind. Well, not for serious consideration anyway. And.. Who goes camping and gets a tornado in the camp? I mean, really. It was insane. We could hear trees cracking and falling down around us, but we thought it was thunder at first. So this lasted not long, maybe about 4 minutes or so. Then it dissipated and flew off over the rest of the canyon behind us.
We sat in the tent, hearts pounding, for another 5 minutes to make sure it was gone before climbing out. Finally we got out, and there were trees down left and right. As we looked around, we heard people up at the street yelling (about a quarter mile from our camp), but we didn’t think anything of it. That’s when a guy came running down our trail yelling. He stopped and we couldn’t tell what he was yelling at us. We moved closer towards him, and we were like, “What????” He yelled, “There’s a tree on your Jeep!!” OMG. Grabbed the keys, and we flew up the trail to find a very large tree lying across my dad’s Jeep. That was when we realized the scope of the situation.
Here is a photo that Andrea took from further down the road, looking up at the tree that landed on the Jeep. You can’t see the Jeep, bc it’s buried under all of those branches on the right hand side. It’s actually on the far right, up on the bank of the road in the grass. The car behind that tree in this pic is the woman’s sedan that got trapped with 4 kids. Yes, you read that correctly. Read on below.
Around 9:45am, I woke up to rain pounding on our tent. I heard it and remember thinking “why is it raining right now?”. That’s when Andrea nudged me to wake up. I lifted my head and looked at her like, “What is going on? It’s not supposed to rain until later on today.” And she returned the look as if to say, “I know! What is this crazy weather??” And just then it started howling and wind started gusting all around us, trying to lift our tent up. So we had to seriously hold the tent down with our bodies on either side, to keep it from lifting up with us inside. Andrea was incredibly nervous and didn’t want us to move, and I was sortof just waiting it out, unsure of what was really happening. That was when it started hailing on top of us like someone was throwing sticks and stones at our tent. What?? Tornado never even really crossed my mind. Well, not for serious consideration anyway. And.. Who goes camping and gets a tornado in the camp? I mean, really. It was insane. We could hear trees cracking and falling down around us, but we thought it was thunder at first. So this lasted not long, maybe about 4 minutes or so. Then it dissipated and flew off over the rest of the canyon behind us.
We sat in the tent, hearts pounding, for another 5 minutes to make sure it was gone before climbing out. Finally we got out, and there were trees down left and right. As we looked around, we heard people up at the street yelling (about a quarter mile from our camp), but we didn’t think anything of it. That’s when a guy came running down our trail yelling. He stopped and we couldn’t tell what he was yelling at us. We moved closer towards him, and we were like, “What????” He yelled, “There’s a tree on your Jeep!!” OMG. Grabbed the keys, and we flew up the trail to find a very large tree lying across my dad’s Jeep. That was when we realized the scope of the situation.
Here is a photo that Andrea took from further down the road, looking up at the tree that landed on the Jeep. You can’t see the Jeep, bc it’s buried under all of those branches on the right hand side. It’s actually on the far right, up on the bank of the road in the grass. The car behind that tree in this pic is the woman’s sedan that got trapped with 4 kids. Yes, you read that correctly. Read on below.
A woman was driving down this road with 4 kids when it started hailing and pouring so hard that she had to stop the car right in front of a ravine…..and unbeknownst to her, right in the path of the tornado (or whatever it was if it didn’t actually register). When she stopped, this tree in the photo above came crashing down just feet in front of her car, and landed on my dad’s Jeep. Screaming out for help, she reversed to get out of there, and just as she did, another very large tree came down just feet behind her back bumper. They had become trapped. Just then, everything dissipated and we had blue skies within minutes. By the grace of God everyone was alright, no injuries.
My phone was dead at this point, so I couldn’t get any pictures, but Andrea was able to capture a little footage on her phone. It’s quite pixilated, but it gives you an idea of the damage. Try this link below. Feel free to laugh at her scintillating reporting comments. I did. It’s the 2nd video if you play the slideshow. The 1st video is from when we walked all the way down Chimney Rock Road to see how widespread the damage was. There were quite a number of trees that the officers had to hand saw and chainsaw apart to get back to us.
