Your worst storm

[2popup]

Glad to see you weren't hurt. We were thinking of going to Turkey Run this year as I haven't been there since Highschool for post prom.
 
We'll just be carefull how we park next to the trees.
 
Glad you weren't hurt, have a good one.

The ironic thing about the tree is after we finished setting up and were admiring the nicely wooded area I noticed a old tree that was about 3/4 dead with large holes in it and only a little live growth on the top portion. I mentioned that if a storm came through that it would probably fall. Wrong! The tree that snapped was behind the camper healthy as could be until it was twisted around by the wind and fell the opposite way of the wind! BAD KARMA on my part that day.
We are looking forward to going back to Turkey Run this fall for another outing. I have told my youngest daughter whom was walking out of the camper and ducked to the ground as tree was falling onto the camper that the chances of this happening a second time have to be pretty slim.
She still wants us to be tree free in the future.
We now have another campfire story to share enjoy your outings!

[Shredder]

This spring while trout fishing we had a real pounding, drenching, rain storm. I went to bed just as the storm hit at about 11. About 3 AM nature called and I went outside to do  my business. To my surprise the awning was almost hitting my head. The awning was not set to enough of an angle and had collected about 50 or more gallons of H2O. The center horizontal pole was U shaped. I pushed water off the awning and standing there in my slippers it washed back around and soaked me and drowned my astro turf rug with sand and dirt. I eventually got enough water off the awning that I could get the pole off and take it in the camper to straighten it. Took it back out, lowered the awning, get back into the camper dry off then realize I never did what I entered to do in the first place. So back out I go getting soaked again, use the facilities, get back in, dry off, hit the sack ,and it quits raining. I did have to re-straighten the pole when I got home but was surprised how much water this awning could hold without collapsing. While my PU stayed dry inside and I had no other problems, I did see the tenters in the campground took to their vehicles, not so much because their tents did not stop the rain but because there was so much water it got in their tents from the ground......Shredder

[K_and_I]

1st trip out this year last month in Turkey Run State Park, Indiana a storm with straight line winds twisted a 85 foot tree next to our 2001 Coleman Mesa and fell on the ABS roof.
No one was hurt. We talked the DNR into bringing in an endloader to lift the tree up and pulled the camper out from underneath the tree.
We lowered the roof and drove the camper home 100 hundred miles away.
Our insurance company totalled the camper, but were gracious enough to allow us to use it one more time on a scheduled outing. After lots of duct tape and a tube of caulk along with 2x4's to support the roof we used it one last time in southern Missourri.
The only problem we ever had with the ABS roof was a tree!
Just brought home a 2007 Jayco 12HW tonight and looking forward to heading out next week again.
Happy Camping to all!

Unbelievable. We were in site #187, probably 200 yards from your site that evening. My DW and I had our son, his wife and their 2 daughters, plus our daughter and her DH in our pup. The wind kicked up and we were discussing if we should head for the shower house, when it slowed down. About 15 minutes later the backhoe came past our site down the loop. A short time later, we saw the damaged pup being pulled out with the top still up. We were so happy to hear that no one was injured. We walked around much of the cg that evening. Two pickups were damaged and a bathhouse roof was crushed besides your damaged pup. The power didn't come on until about 10:00 pm Saturday night.
I hope you have better fortune with the Jayco. Glad to hear you are not giving up.
Happy camping.

[jpreiser]

Ours was a few years ago at Cherrystone Campground in VA.... storm was awful. pop up's flipped over, tents ripped apart, trees down etc...  Then no electric, bathrooms closed and pools closed . fun trip:)

[sacrawf]

My worst storm experience since getting the popup was just last weekend. Since I had both a pop-up and boat/trailer at the park over the holiday weekend, I took the family and camper home on Sunday. I went back to the campground by myself with a one-person single-wall bicycle touring tent so I could spend the night and enjoy one more day of fishing.  The storms started at 4:00 A.M. and it rained continuously until 11:20 A.M..  The tent campsite was covered with standing water, and I had to pour the water out of the floor of the tent before I could hang it up from a lantern post to drain completely.  The afternoon partially cleared up, and an afternoon of fishing made up for the wet night of sleep.

[2popup]

Unbelievable. We were in site #187, probably 200 yards from your site that evening. My DW and I had our son, his wife and their 2 daughters, plus our daughter and her DH in our pup. The wind kicked up and we were discussing if we should head for the shower house, when it slowed down. About 15 minutes later the backhoe came past our site down the loop. A short time later, we saw the damaged pup being pulled out with the top still up. We were so happy to hear that no one was injured. We walked around much of the cg that evening. Two pickups were damaged and a bathhouse roof was crushed besides your damaged pup. The power didn't come on until about 10:00 pm Saturday night.
I hope you have better fortune with the Jayco. Glad to hear you are not giving up.
Happy camping.

I was impressed with the Indiana DNR folks as when the enloader came to lift one side of the tree off of the camper so did several DNR employees who moved the coolers and all the extra stuff out from under the tree while I was pulling the camper out.  Even though the owners manual does not recomend pulling the camper when the top is up it can be done
What amazed me is that the lift system still worked and the ABS roof (after a little force) sealed up to tow home.
One of the reasons I always have loved to camp is all the wonderful folks who are always willing to assist, lend a hand, or a little bit of empathy when one is very wet and needs a smile!
Thanks for your response and maybe we will see you next year.... although we might choose a more treeless site down the loop.  thanks

[K_and_I]

I was impressed with the Indiana DNR folks as when the enloader came to lift one side of the tree off of the camper so did several DNR employees who moved the coolers and all the extra stuff out from under the tree while I was pulling the camper out.  Even though the owners manual does not recomend pulling the camper when the top is up it can be done
What amazed me is that the lift system still worked and the ABS roof (after a little force) sealed up to tow home.
One of the reasons I always have loved to camp is all the wonderful folks who are always willing to assist, lend a hand, or a little bit of empathy when one is very wet and needs a smile!
Thanks for your response and maybe we will see you next year.... although we might choose a more treeless site down the loop.  thanks

Again, what a small world. We would like to go again. It's about a 6 hour drive for us, but our daughter and son-in-law live about 3 hours into IL, so it worked as a "half way" point (you know how half way works between parents and kids). Here is a picture of our site that weekend, about 200 yards closer to the dump station than yours:



Maybe we can meet next year.

[pershingd]

Ok - haven't been here in awhile and am late on this topic BUT...

Mother's Day 2008 @ Pomme de'Terre Lake, MO - Tornado warnings all afternoon with the accompanying rain, hail, and wind. That was followed by a night of 45 mph wind gusts all night. The conditions were bad enough that we couldn't safely fold up the camper, so we waited out the warnings in a nearby shelter and then battened down the hatches and rode the winds out in the camper. We could hear the winds coming through the trees and count down until it shook the camper. I had backed the truck up to the camper so that it broke the wind up and over the front bunk rather than getting under it. No one in our group slept much that night, but no one had any major damage.


David

[serenelyretiered]

NT THE WORST BUT LAST May it rained daily for 2 weeks. some times very hard with thunder/lighting & sometime steady drizzle.
My Jayco took it well. No leaks what so ever.

[treephiz]

I can remember in the mid to late seventies when i was a kid my parents had a very vintage pup.  It had two doors on top that opened up like a box top.  There was a canvas tent that sat on top of the unit and the doors were the beds on either side.  We went to Fenwick Island Delaware for our summer outing.  There was a storm that blew in and lasted all night.  Mom and Dad went from side to side to hold down the side that was coming up the most.  I remember thinking this must be what Dorthy must have felt like.  Scary times.

[wavery]

My worst storm was in June of 1994. "Queens Birthday Storm".

We were sailing from Tonga to New Zealand in our 45' Passport Ketch "Kanani".

It's a long story and if you are interested, here is an account of the storm:
http://www.bethandevans.com/pdf/qbs.pdf

We sat on our parachute sea anchor for 3 days. There were 7 other yachts and 3 lives lost in that storm. There were 21 rescues all together. It was the most dramatic rescue effort ever mounted on several different small vessels like ours.

We listened to our SSB radio as all of these injuries and rescues took place. There wasn't a thing that we could do as a boat 15 miles from us rolled over and all hands were lost.

The wind was blowing in access of 115MPH. The seas were 50-80' and breaking everywhere. The lightening and thunder was so intense that it was nearly impossible to communicate with the person right next to you. To my knowledge, we were the only vessel in the storm that was equipped with a parachute sea anchor. I would never go to sea without one.

[ronerjones]

We have been very fortunate weather wise, the past 2 years that we have had our PU we seem to get very lucky storm wise, and we camp a lot during the summer where storms pop up with no notice. I do however, have a funny story regarding our awning. Our 2nd or 3rd outing we had a pretty good rain most of the night and our awning was out and basically became a huge water reservoir. When I saw it I could not believe it did not burst or tip the entire PU. There had to have been at least 50 gallons of water held in the awning. Well while the kids watched (and I am sure half the camp ground) I thought it would be a good Idea to try and drain it slow into a 5 gallon bucket and that way we could dump the water further away from our front entrance. Well we got the water to start draining, but then we couldn't stop the faucet. Wifey and I received a blast of very cold water, it was only 6am, we were in our PJ's, it not only soaked us completely but the rush of water to the ground shot mud up to our heads. Every time we set up the awning one of the kids always starts to laugh and asks "remember when it rained".

[WolfPack]

Here what was left of my camper at the outer banks n.c in 03 this was on my son brithday[IMhttp://inlinethumb11.webshots.com/11978/2923710170102012557S425x425Q85.jpgG]

[wavery]

Wolfpack.....we'll try that again: