Your worst storm

[stewartlittle]

Mine was this past Friday evening.
I was'nt camping but got it set up at the local WalMart at the fireworks tent.
The first small one that came I was'nt there and they were fighting the tent from high winds that they forgot to zip the windows up.Can you say ''SOAKED MATRESS".
Anyway,I showed up later and then another one hit,I think even worse,I got in the camper zip up all the windows.It rained like a monsoon for a few minutes and the wind was so hard,I could hardly believe that the canvas was giving that much without ripping.The wind was so strong it forced the rain right thru the canvas webbing,that was some strong wind.
I have it treated with 303,so when I took a towel and dried it,it felt dry.

Another storm came thru yesterday,so I put the camper down till it was over,but it was'nt as bad.

[PattieAM]

While camped at Occoneechee State Park (Clarksville, VA) on Kerr Lake, my PUP endured 50 mph winds and short torrential rains - lots of billowing of the canvas, and some swaying of the PUP - bunks rose/fell like being in a boat in water, and the awning/add-a-room had me very worried.  Only lasted about 20 minutes, but very harrowing!  After the storm passed, the only 'damage' was the add-a-room had pulled loose from the awning velcro in several spots (I'd opened all the flaps to allow the wind to pass through).  The wind/rain carried alot of silt and I had to hose the canvas to clean it off.  No leaks though.

Another time - again on Kerr Lake, while at Hibernia campground, we had a freak storm in the middle of the night.  I had the awning set up and the add-a-room, and I heard the wind's roar and had my grandson out holding the awning poles while I tied the awning/add-a-room down and staked it....pretty ferocious - but by the time we finished tying down, etc., the winds quit!

Here at home just last year, had the PUP set up for cleaning in the driveway, and saw the dark clouds - so installed the door on the PUP, and started taking pictures.....the tongue was facing my house.  High winds/wind sheer and heavy rain hit fast so went inside and was taking pictures from a back window - looked out again and it wasn't the tongue facing my house, but the spare tire!  Storm passed and I went out to see if I was nuts - the tongue chock was still on the ground where the tongue had been, but the PUP had been spun around 180 degrees - missing was the battery box cover, outside vent covers and, two wheel chocks.  Found the wheel chocks.  About that time, I heard a creaking and turned around and a cedar tree came down and somehow managed to land on my Durango.  Evidently in it's fall, a stick broke off and flew into the roof of the camper.  I didn't notice this until I went to close the camper as I'd thought it was just another mud splat.  Thank heavens for insurance - had to replace the entire roof.

[A2SuperCrew]

Our worst storm in the PUP was two weeks ago in Custer State Park, South Dakota.  Hail came down so hard it knocked water through the canvas on the bunk ends.  In the end there was no hail damage, but boy was it LOUD while it was coming down!   :yikes:   Fortunately, the storm blew through fast.  

[Hargus]

This one may not have been the worst storm but it was odd. My DW and I were outside of our PU at the Eastern Rally in 2006 in NY getting ready for a storm. While we were picking up and getting ready there was a strange sound off away. We looked each other puzzled until it hit. The sound was the very heavy rain coming in the distance.

Now's the time to speak up with some real storm stories, Wavery.

[jaytee2274]

I will never forget it.  I was a kid camping with my family in Chincoteague, VA.  Middle of the night (of course), my dad heard it coming and I helped him tie our pup to the nearest trees.  I still cannot believe it didn't rip apart.  We hid out in the car until it blew over, but there was a couple camping next to us in one of those Army style pup tents....needless to say they spent the night in their car and left the next day with a very damaged tent.  

We found out the next day a tornado had been spotted close by....yikes.

[xjcrawler]

Mine was this past Friday evening.
I was'nt camping but got it set up at the local WalMart at the fireworks tent.

Hey stewartlittle, you wouldn't by chance be in Oakwood, Georgia, would you?

[fallsrider]

In February '97, I traveled to the Outer Banks of NC solo to just get away for a weekend. I parked the pup in one direction, not really thinking about the wind. A nor'easter blew through that night, shaking the roof quite hard most of the night (I don't think I ever went to sleep). It was quite chilly, so I turned on the strip heat in the a/c, as well as ran an electric bathroom heater to stay warm.

The wind was so strong, it was blowing into the back of the a/c unit and almost forcing the condenser fan to a halt. So all night long, I laid there listening to the fan almost stop, then speed up again, only to slow back down to a crawl again.

If I had only known, I could have set up on a site facing the opposite direction. Then the wind would have flowed over the front of the a/c unit, not affecting the fan.

[MotherNature]

Our worst by far was in April at Delaware Seashore State Park.  It had been fairly windy all day with a couple of thunderstorms (not severe) but it settled down around bedtime.  We were all awakened by the wind making a very strange  whistling noise as it blew over the camper but the camper wasn't rocking much so we went back to sleep.  In the middle of the night DH woke up to see that one of the cinderblocks that we use to weight down the awning (mason's line tied to the front rail on either side of the poles, use the blocks instead of stakes)was suspended 4 feet in the air (eldest son witnessed this also).  I myself slept through this until they woke me to go outside and help roll up the awning before it tore away from the camper.  The front rail was bent but DH was able to straighten it enough so that it would zip into the bag.  

More scary than being out in the wind rolling up the thing was my other DS decided he HAD to make a trip to the bathroom during all of this 'excitement'.  I was terrified that he and DH would get hit with some kind of flying debris while they ran over to the restroom!

I checked the internet when we got home and found there were sustained winds of 40 and gusts of 55.

Thankfully, no one was hurt and other than the awning rail, no damage was done.  DH patched up the metal rail with some kind of sheet metal reinforcements and while it looks strange, it works!

Needless to say, we learned our lesson and now pack in the awning as soon as the breeze turns into a wind!

[Mike Up]

Twice.
 
In my previous 2005 Rockwood 2290 PUP. I was in Hot Springs, Ark during Katrina. I had the Carefree of Colorado awning poles to the sides of the camper. The awning was a sail and shifted the roof back and forth. However got the awning down and not much problem. No water because the Vinolon synthetic canvas was vinyl coated.
 
 
Starcraft was setup in the driveway. We had 3 tornados come through town and 60 - 70 mph wind gusts. Driving rain and small hail. Wind gust picked up the front bunk and a pole came out, but the ring platform pole set was taking the weight while the pole that came out had no weight on it to keep it in place.
 
No water in this one as well as the synthetic tarp is vinyl embedded. The bunkend window flaps are breathable and not vinyl, however after having my girlfriend hose the bunkend down, only a very light mist came through with the hose only inches from the flap. Being I have 50 psi pressure, that was pretty good containment IMO for a canvas that wasn't vinyl coated but only had a waterproofing.
 
I've been very impressed with how these newer PUPs handle terrible storms.
 
Have a good one.

[JohnandLeann]

Not camping related, but we were stuck in Cancun, Mx during Hurricane Wilma.  We were on our honeymoon.  Had three wonderful days until we were put into the shelter on the property where we were staying.  After four nights in the shelter, had to get bussed over to Merida, a 12 hour ride through the middle of the night to an operating airport.  Got to Mexico City from there, by the good fortune to have an actual travel agent in the states with access to the travel system.  People that had those online reservation companies were stuck as the phone systems were sketchy, banking systems, and such did not work.
It was so good to be back in Los Angeles after all of that.

John

[2popup]

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!

[Mike Up]

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.

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.

[ltrcrr]

The worst storm I was in was just last week. I told the wife that I was going camping with some buddies but took the girl from work. She called my buddies wife to ask her something and wanted to know where we all went on our camping trip. Well, come to find out, Ray, answered the phone and was caught totally by suprise!!! He mentioned to his wife before my wife called about a friend going camping up a Rivers Run Campground . From what I can gather, he was flustered and gave the phone to his wife , who in turn "mentioned" the name of the campgroung. Well, I was sure suprised when you know who showed up. First and fore most, nothing happened between this person and myself...
Talk about a massive front moving in!!! I would have rather been in a hurricane or tornado than to suffer the wrath of a women!!! Talk about lightening and Hail...well you ain't seen nothing folks ...lightening bolts shot out of her eyes and right into me.....
To make a long story short, I'm looking for a new pop-up and a new place to put it so I have a place to live!!! :banghead:

[ltrcrr]

The  ABOVE story really DIDN'T happen...I was just interjecting a bit of laughter...
 Have a SAFE and HAPPY 4th of JULY folks!!!!!!!!!! :-()

[mbopp]

DW & I used to canoe-camp. 'Bout 6 years ago we paddled upriver to a lake with numerous campsites. DW wanted one particular site, I told her it wasn't a good location because it was on the western end of an island, was unprotected,  and would catch any storm coming off the lake. When we got there it was a moot point - the site was taken so we found another one on the east side of the island.

Fast forward to the evening. A pretty fierce thunderstorm blew through. We battened down the hatches and were OK on our site. There were some pretty close lightning strikes, the flash & boom were real close together. After it blew through it cleared up and we decided to take an evening paddle.

On the site DW wanted there was a couple in shell shock. A big slab of pine was laying on the ground by their tent. The guy said lightning hit it and there tent was maybe 10' from the tree. His fishing poles were leaning against the tree and were scorched.

The next day they were gone. DW never said anything about trying that site again.