I'm curious about where people were when the big storm struck on Sunday afternoon and what you did afterwards?
Personally, I was sitting on a tarp at mainstage during the first downpour no problem, but then, during the Tracy set I noticed how black the sky was getting, so I headed up to my parent's canopy. We were fine in there at first, but as the wind and rain picked up, we were suddenly in a battle to hold the structure down so it wouldn't blow away. We gripped the aluminum poles with our rain ponchos (as lightning crackled around us) and felt the pinging of the huge hail stones as they started to fall. It was a truly scary moment. After what felt like an eternity, the rain and wind finally let up and we started collecting our stuff to haul ass to our collective cars to wait it out. It was at that point that people coming up the hill were saying that another storm was on it's way worse than the previous one, there was a tornado warning, and security cancelled the rest of the festival and told everyone to head for some kind of solid cover. At that point we abandoned all hope and our tarp and high-tailed it to their car where we passed the raging river under the pedestrian bridge which had been a mere stream that morning and sat through the second round of rain before that let up and I escaped to my car. What a horrific ending to an otherwise awesome weekend. Hope everyone made it out alright!
| | Sometimes I think I'm bigger than the sound (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.2){kind=small} jen_tel) wrote in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif?v=92.2){kind=small} falconridge, |
- Mood:
exhausted
← Ctrl← Alt
Ctrl →Alt →
July 28 2008, 03:52:23 UTC 3 years ago
Then I wandered over to the hammock vendor, found that he was in bad shape, and helped him out a bit.
My tent was in bad shape when I got back to it. It was mangled in a way that really looked like something big (possibly a vehicle) whacked it. Fortunately nothing but the tent itself was damaged.
BTW, if anyone reading this found a Nada Chair (strap thing that supports your back with straps that hook over your knees), I would *really* like it back.
July 28 2008, 04:33:30 UTC 3 years ago
This was not a happy weather week - we arrived in the midst of all the rain Wednesday and ended up parked in the day parking field for two days and then had to have the RV towed out by the tractor. Not exactly what we had planned on for the week.
July 28 2008, 04:48:12 UTC 3 years ago
I don't know the exact reasons for bringing the festival down at that point, but: the volunteer, concession and information tents were all collapsed, the power was down, several of the vendors' tents were collapsed, most of the food vendors couldn't do anything without power (only the ones with their own power sources were), and many attendees were focused on picking up their pieces and getting the Hell out as quickly as possible. So I can't disagree with the decision.
Like the fire in upper pasture 2 years ago, I don't think the festival was well prepared for this sort of event. But people seemed to be doing a good job of picking up and moving on.
3 years ago
3 years ago
3 years ago
3 years ago
3 years ago
3 years ago
3 years ago
3 years ago
July 28 2008, 04:40:29 UTC 3 years ago
July 28 2008, 05:14:03 UTC 3 years ago
July 28 2008, 12:33:25 UTC 3 years ago
i didnt know about 22 being closed, so i ended up lost in the berkshires in the rain for about an hour. that sucked, but I finally found my way home.
July 28 2008, 14:28:10 UTC 3 years ago
3 years ago
July 28 2008, 12:57:02 UTC 3 years ago
Didn't realize 22 was closed either.. we took quite the detour getting home. At least the weather was good Friday and Saturday!
July 28 2008, 16:29:47 UTC 3 years ago
July 28 2008, 14:44:25 UTC 3 years ago Edited: July 28 2008, 14:47:14 UTC
Also, as we were walking back to camp, I saw Josiah and told him I had been looking forward to the Slambovian's set all weekend. He said he would "owe me" a concert. :-)
So, did this second storm that they warned us about ever pass through? I'm assuming all the other acts were cancelled after Tracey?
July 28 2008, 21:48:53 UTC 3 years ago
July 28 2008, 14:45:27 UTC 3 years ago
July 28 2008, 21:46:05 UTC 3 years ago
P.S. Hey, I should've thought to look for you, didn't see you at all.
Anonymous
July 28 2008, 15:02:23 UTC 3 years ago
A scary finale
I had retreated to the dining tent. It was packed with people as the storm walloped us. We struggled to brace the tent posts. The woman next to me was getting stung by hail stones; they were flying like buckshot.At first, people inside were urging calm. But as the canvas started coming unhinged, a FR volunteer shouted: "Get out! Everybody! NOW!!"
Then the tent collapsed. Miraculously, everyone escaped unharmed. At least, that's what volunteers said.
Many of us then crammed into the First Aid tent. As the lights flickered out, people started singing "Row Your Boat." It was surreal. It reminded me of that show--"Deadliest Catch?"--that depicts fishing boats getting pummeled by angry seas every week. Maybe we should have sung "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"!
The claustrophobia was too much, so I made a muddy dash for my car, slogging past pulverized official tents. My car barely made it out of the parking lot; I hung a right on Rt. 22 and reached the southbound Taconic. There were lots of crashes and detours, but it could have been worse.
My only knock against FR is they should have given everyone more warning to seek cover.
On Saturday night they told us rain showers were likely within 15 minutes.
But on Sunday a very nervous Tracy bravely continued singing with Jim (the show must go on, right?) as thunder boomed around them and lightning danced on the ridge.
Someone should have been monitoring local weather reports, and cleared the hillside sooner. It's lucky that nobody was struck by lightning. Has anyone heard otherwise?
Anonymous
July 28 2008, 17:56:12 UTC 3 years ago
Re: A scary finale
I was one of the folks watching the workshop stage from the blue peace tent towards the back of the hill. When the first storm happened, more people joined us in the tent. Then they postponed the next set while waiting for word about the weather.Lightening was crackling and that sound was coming out of the speakers on the stage. They said a storm was coming and it was our decision if we felt safe enough to stay. Some folks stayed in the seating area for the stage, others joined us under the tent. The stage rolled down the walls once the rain started.
Thunder boomed and more lightening crackled. A tree exploded (I assume lightening strike) and came down just to the left of the tent. It nearly took out 4 kids who were trying to wait out the storm under a tarp. They ran into to join us.
The sound tent started blowing away and the two guys did their best to use what was left of the canopy to protect their equipment.
Three of the big wooden stakes holding down the peace tent started to come up. People were holding the polls of the tent in place while the winds ripped through. When the wind died down a few guys did their best to repair the tent stakes and ran back in as the golf ball sized hail started.
We surveyed the area and saw a huge vendor tent had been completely uprooted with pieces strewn about.
When this storm finally let up a little, someone ran up to tell us that we should find more permanent shelter as two more storms were coming.
I ran back towards my friend's campsite. Passing a number of collapsed communal tents. On the way over I had to jump a 2ft river of water streaming down the hill.
When I got to my friends, their 3 shelters had been swept away. Two of the tents were still sitting pegged to the ground, a third had blown away. The whole camping area had tons of stuff strewn about and shelters that had been damaged. People were sitting in their cars waiting for the next bout of storms. We packed up our stuff in the rain and took off. Traffic getting out of the festival was pretty bad. No one seemed to be directing anything until we got to 22. They told us 22e was closed, so we went west and picked up 23 to 7 north. Traffic on the pike was also really bad, and we weren't back until late in the evening.
It is unbelievable that more people weren't hurt and I've got to say that the communication about what was happening was pretty poor.
3 years ago
3 years ago
July 28 2008, 19:19:30 UTC 3 years ago
i really hope no one was hurt; it's scary hearing about all these collapses & near-misses!
July 28 2008, 19:36:34 UTC 3 years ago
Family tent
We were in the family tent watching Robbie Schaefer's kid show. The rain began to fall and there was some lightning and he made some jokes about God participating in a call and response, then began a new song called "Water." I was near the door when the wind kicked in and did my best to hold the whipping wall down to keep it from spraying others.Then the wind picked up the roof and the wall pole near me came out of place. We shoved it back in and began holding the roof on with hands and a panic-fueled determination. Kids began crying. The wind really began taking off. Every tent pole had one or two people on it. Some of the lighter people were lifted off the ground. It got pretty scary. The ground outside was a big puddle. I gave up on being at all dry.
To our credit, the tent did survive when similar tents collapsed. When a messenger came saying a second storm cell was expected and we should abandon, I made sure the tent wall was lifted so everyone could get out and then collected my family together to hit the hill and get out.
On our way out, we were halted by one of the first aid volunteers who said we were not going to make it up the hill before the second cell hit and herded us into the first aid tent. That was good, as I did want to help out if needed, and what better place to do that.
We weathered the much milder second cell in the first aid tent and then I did a quick walkabout to see how the roads were, if people were allowed to leave and what had happened to our tents. While examining the road, a lot of stuck motorists asked me basic questions like, "Will they continue the music?" and "Are we going to get out today?" I gave my best guesses, no and yes.
Things were not that bad after the first big blast. We left maybe an hour later after helping some folks on the hill out of the mud and cleaning up a bit. Once the wind died, it was fine.
July 28 2008, 19:56:56 UTC 3 years ago
When I returned to Dodds Farm (via back roads due to the closure of Rte. 22), many camps had been dismantled. My partner and our friends had managed to load all the camp stuff into the friends' Subaru and get it down the hill.
Again, the Fest's directors misjudged certain things. The torrential rains before the fest should've kicked a declaration of "no big trailers or RVs" in the Lower and Upper Pasture areas into effect. That's the only big gripe, though, as they did a good job with what they had.
And did anybody follow the saga of the Fest volunteer who was stealing from various camps? He'd been hiding the stolen loot in the Subaru that was crashed next to the shower facilities. I was there when Fest security nabbed the volunteer and had him arrested by the county sheriff. Apparently, the guy had never shown up for a shift after initial check-in, and had been pilfering alcohol and bags from various camps around the flats. It was nuts, but the Fest staff managed to get the stolen goods back to their rightful owners.
July 28 2008, 20:18:32 UTC 3 years ago
July 28 2008, 20:54:00 UTC 3 years ago
More advance warning would have been ideal, of course, but I understand that it's difficult to spread the word to thousands of people quickly, and it's also potentially difficult to tell how bad these things will be until they have almost hit...
July 28 2008, 21:12:52 UTC 3 years ago
all 'round the site
I was at the workshop tent, at a great spot right up front, waiting for Red Molly & the Strangelings to get started. They were all set up, but the guy running the stage said we were waiting to see if it was safe - we could all see lightning behind us. So we waited about ten minutes as the clouds moved quickly and the lightning continued, and he suggested we might want to go somewhere safe if we didn't feel comfortable about the lightning, but we sat there because we didn't think it was particularly dangerous. then suddenly the rain crashed down, they put down the workshop stage flaps, and said "we're done", so I got up.It was such a heavy rainfall, I decided to go to the car to see if
The big food tent was right in front of me, full of people, so I ran over there and ducked under, but it was starting to fall, so I grabbed hold of a pole. There was another person holding that pole, and 2-3 people on every other pole, and more holding down the edges of the roof cover. We held for... it felt like 10 minutes, maybe more, just barely keeping it there, until someone called "everybody out" in a voice of authority, so we abandoned it and it fell.
I went the rest of the way to the front ticket sales booth, where I could see my car and see that she wasn't there, but the big tent there was holding up so I waited it out there. Two of my campmates went by - they'd had a much more harrowing time.
They told me they saw two more of us at the dance tent shortly before the storm, so when the storm let up somewhat, I went there... and found the band in the middle of the stage, playing a waltz off-mic :)
July 28 2008, 21:25:14 UTC 3 years ago
Glad that everyone was ok- sounds like those who stayed had quite the harrowing adventure!
Easy communication suggestions...Perhaps a warning from all 4 stages simultaneously, along with direction to the audience to head up the hill and back to campsites spreading the word? A bull horn on the ice truck?
July 28 2008, 22:13:50 UTC 3 years ago
This was certainly a fest for the record books!
3 years ago
3 years ago
July 29 2008, 00:44:41 UTC 3 years ago
In access tent
I was in the access tent next to the main stage. Everything was fine until the grape size hail and horizontal winds. The access stage has no side flaps, so they decided to herd us into medical tent. Since we got soaked in the journey of ten feet, the medical team said, "Blankets for the senior citizens!" These were appreciated although I later gave it to someone even more soaked than us. The medical team and access volunteers did a good job of holding down the medical tent. The down side was that there was six inches of water on the ground with nowhere to go. There was a second threatened thunder cell but it didn't hit full on and about 45 minutes later the rain stopped. We opted to run (or rather slog) for the car with the help of two volunteers. They opened the bridge for us as the water was now running under the bridge rather than OVER it which it had been doing at the peak of the rain. It only took about five minutes to get out of the parking lot but was being directed southbound only.July 29 2008, 02:01:30 UTC 3 years ago
Acoustic Live refuge
I was wondering whether I'd find a "where were you when the storm hit" posting, and you guys didn't disappoint!The biggest thing I can say is "thank god it hit on Sunday afternoon." Almost everyone packs up Sunday morning. I know, not everyone, but the majority of attendees do, and I think that there would have been a lot more damage to tents, screenhouses, etc (and not to mention, a lot more injuries!) if all those tents were still up.
I was at Tracy's set on Sunday when it was thundering, and you guys are right, she was very nervous, rightfully so! Then I went to Acoustic Live because Phil was playing in a few minutes, and I thought I'd rather be there then at mainstage if a big storm hit! Plus I am Phil's biggest fan, of course. Our friend Jeff has this technological thing that he watches the weather on, I think it is called a Trio, and it even has a doppler thing on it. He had said that a storm cell was headed in our direction in an L-shape and it was bright red. Anyway when I got to Acoustic Live it was raining and RJ Cowdery was playing. We were all under the ez up which had tarp walls like most of the vendors. When the main storm hit we all helped hold it together. Phil, Jeff, Carrie and others held onto the top of the frame, and I helped hold the sides shut. Phil was saying, "ow, my hands" when the hail was hitting his fingers. I yelled "IIIIIIIIICCCCCCCCCEEEEE" and maybe got a few nervous grins at least. We were also holding guitars with minimal success at keeping them dry. There were around 12-15 people in there, I would guess. Maybe a little less. Then, Jeff Kimball began singing the Titanic song with many, many verses. There was a lot of laughing which helped a lot. Yet another falcon ridge moment!!!! There was little if any damage to the Acoustic Live booth that I could tell, except for some very wet newsletters. After the weather settled we helped drain the water from the roof and picked up a few things, and a few people left and a few others joined us. Then Phil did his set, with a very touching sing-along of "the winds of lake erie" which has two sing-along parts, one that says "it rained and rained for 40 days" and the other part says "rain, rain, go away." Then the security or site-crew guy came and said that another storm was coming and we should go to our vehicles. He then said, "I have had several questions from people, one about where the dance tent is and one about the schedule for the rest of the day. Those are not appropriate questions right now" or something like that. In a polite way, though. Then we walked back to our camp, which luckily we had packed up in the morning. I was worrying about how we'd get out of there, as we were in one of the lower aareas furthest from the road (Camp stupid americans, in lower camping just before the showers). And the water on the raod back to our site was knee deep in places.
July 29 2008, 02:02:03 UTC 3 years ago
Re: Acoustic Live refuge
Here's the rest of it; they said my previous one was too long!!!!.....As Jessica said, there was an "illegal" lot and road near our camp, but there was a flooded culvert blocking it. People were driving across it bravely, including one group with a car exactly like mine, but when each car bounced through the culvert with water up to their wheel wells I had my doubts. My car has some electrical "issues" in wet weather as it is. So we stood around, sat around, talked, watched people, walked around and discussed, saw that rt 22 north was closed, watched the huge traffic jam going out the main entrance, and so forth. I walked back toward the main entrance and there were several people directing traffic on the three roads out of lower camping (if you know where I mean) onto the "main" road (still within festival grounds but coming down from the main hill) and they were doing a decent job. Meanwhile, in the time that we were waiting around, the water receded. Jessica's car was outside the fence already, and she made it up the hill to 22. Jeff and Vivian braved the culvert and made it out safely as well. We debated, mostly held up by me, the bag o'nerves, and ultimately decided to go for the traffic jam. We made it to the road out and to rt 22 with no incident and no real wait in traffic--people let us into the line no problem. We went into hillsdale even though we would have taken 22 north, pulled over and consulted a map, and ended up going to great barrington and taking 7 north to rutland. It seemed to take FOREVER although I think it was probably 20-30 minutes longer than our usual route, if that. Then we got home, aired out our not-too-wet stuff on the porch, and slept from 11 pm to 11 am. We haven't slept that late since last falcon ridge!!!!
Has anyone heard whether or not anyone got hurt?
3 years ago
July 29 2008, 16:13:29 UTC 3 years ago
Sheltered in Merch Tent
I was in the Merch tent with a large number of other people. I have to say, I'm really impressed with how together almost everyone was - attendees and volunteers alike.On the volunteer side, we did our best to get in touch with site crew to get the power cut (not as quickly as anyone would have liked, I think) and also to identify the major problem areas (read: electrical outlets). On the attendee side, people really jumped right in to help hold down the fort (literally!) and to push the water off the roof or to brace the poles that were coming out. Even before needs were publicly identified, people stepped right up to take care of problems before they became extremely serious.
All things considered, I think it went incredibly well and the communal effort was really heartening to see. Being in the Merch tent, I really had no idea what was going on outside until it was described to me later by my 14 year old son (who was stepping up in responsibility in his own way, taking care of his girlfriend and his 4 y/o cousin and getting them safe) and seeing the video that's posted to You Tube and making the rounds.
I hope this won't turn people off of the festival in the future, and will, instead, show people just how amazing the entire Falcon Ridge community can be when faced with great adversity.
Also, from all reports I have heard, there were NO MAJOR INJURIES, but a lot of cases of hypothermia.
July 29 2008, 16:25:57 UTC 3 years ago
Glad to hear that it seems as thought everyone ended up safe.
July 29 2008, 18:44:07 UTC 3 years ago
At the Main Stage
Wow! It is fascinating reading all these other stories. I was sitting at the Main Stage listening to Tracy and Jim. As other noted, Tracy was pretty nervous about the coming lightening and asked if she should continue. Everyone cheered for her to keep playing, so she did.Jim was playing "1952 Vincent Black Lightening" as the rain started and they called time out at the end of the song. I stayed on the hill and huddled under the tarp next to my 15 year old daughter and two of her friends.
My daughter took a bunch of pictures of us inside the tarp, including pictures of us picking up hailstones. Hopefully, I'll be able to post some of them online later when I get them from my daughter.
We had packed up in the morning and had been thinking about leaving after Tracy's set, so when security came around and told people to head for safety, we went to our car and drove down the hill. We waited for a long time in the main parking lot, waiting for our turn to get out onto Route 22. We didn't know that 22 North was closed. We were heading south, and then east on 23. One of our shortcuts was closed, so our trip home took a little longer than it otherwise would have.
As we were heading down 22, I commented to my daughter about how it looked like power had been lost in parts of Hillsdale. I hadn't heard that the power had been cut at the festival, but I wonder if it was really that the storm took out power in a larger part of Hillsdale, including the festival.
I've got some pictures and videos of the festival, including some of the coming storm, up on my Flickr page and my Blip.tv page
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aldon
and
http://ahynes1.blip.tv
Also, I've been putting up blog posts on my blog, Orient Lodge:
http://www.orient-lodge.com
July 29 2008, 18:58:18 UTC 3 years ago
Re: At the Main Stage
The power was purposely cut when it was clear that the festival tents were going to start coming down. There was too much water on the ground for it to be safe to have power.After the storm was over, there were lines and wires submerged, so the power was not turned back on.
There may have *also* been an outage, but in terms of the festival itself, it was a conscious decision.
3 years ago
3 years ago
July 29 2008, 22:57:45 UTC 3 years ago
http://strayfarce.com/2008/07/27/sh
Anonymous
July 30 2008, 00:28:02 UTC 3 years ago
rhiannon giles
July 30 2008, 01:52:56 UTC 3 years ago
Had a hell of a time driving home on the roads but I was lucky, considering.
July 30 2008, 05:04:19 UTC 3 years ago
Shelter under a tree during a lightening strike - not so smart; big tree protecting me from hail - handy. Only visible alternative - make a dive for the underside of a nearby Grand Cherokee. What can I say, I hid nearby the tree, and once the hail let up, went to find my friends who were on-shift at Info tent.
No Info tent on the horizon - that's a bad sign. All are well and present and accounted for, but yeah....
First year at Falcon Ridge. Kinda like baptism by fire, really. -H...
July 30 2008, 12:44:53 UTC 3 years ago
I was hanging out with my partner, who was working at the Teen Crew canopy. We were watching the lightening during the break in the rain, and counting how close the thunder was. He'd just sent a bunch of teens out to put out more hay, and we'd re-staked the poles of the (very flimsy - no side supports) canopy. As soon as the wind started to blow, it came right over, so we used it to cover the last of the hay (figuring that if it rained, more hay would be needed).
Then, we went and huddled under the ATM and at the Security Canopy. When it got windier, we ran into the Site Crew Tent. I had a big rain poncho, but my partner just had a t-shirt and jeans.
There was a side panel open near the electrical panel, and people were worried about rain getting in on the wires, so I was trying to fasten the metal clips when a *huge* gust of wind blew the entire thing out of my hands, and pulled the tent over on us. Someone must have screamed "get out", and I remember seeing all the wires getting pulled, and realizing that they were all still live. It was pretty scary.
We ran out and hid on the end of the Instrument Lock-up trailer. A bunch of people were running around everywhere, panicking. We got a few of them to stay behind the trailer with us. My partner was soaked, and freezing, as were a lot of people. He's got a mark on his forehead where a hailstone hit him before we got to a place that would block the hail.
When the storm died down, we went out to the car (we were supposed to leave at 2pm, so all our stuff was luckily packed up) to get him dry clothing. It was still raining a bit. We passed the ticket sales booth, which had been completely torn apart.
Then we went exploring to try to find our friends/family. The Family Tent looked to have weathered the storm, but the other tents were down. Some merchant tents seemed okay, but others were destroyed. We hung out for a bit at the Dance Tent, which seemed to be the sturdiest there, until they screamed to get out because another storm was coming.
We didn't heed that warning, and continued to walk around to check on friends. Our camp was mostly dismantled, but the two tents that were still up had survived. Other friends had canopies destroyed, tents flooded, etc. It rained a bit more, but it never got stormier.
Finally, around 4pm, we got in the car, took some Rescue Remedy, put on dry clothes again, and set off.
-Rek
← Ctrl← Alt
Ctrl →Alt →