Mason Dixon Fair 2014: The Storm

Tuesday night, while the goat shows were finishing up, a brief large storm system moved through the area.  Thunderstorms had been predicted for the day and evening (it's seems like the weathermen predict thunderstorms on a daily basis during the summer, just to be on the safe side).  People with smartphones who had been looking at the weather radars started warning those of us without smartphones that there was a system coming through.  It looked like a long hot dog, with yellows and reds.  They were predicting hail and winds up to 70 mph.

The storm starting to come in.  This picture does not do justice to the actual darkness of the sky.

Then the phone calls started coming in.  People close by who had already been hit were calling to warn us: this system was coming in fast and hard, with little warning.  A husband called his wife and told her not to come home, but to go to a friend's house; their roof had been damaged by hail.  Others were calling to warn us to make the tents and barns and animals secure NOW, because this thing was coming.  In the meantime, the shows were continuing, because the skies were still clear.

My in-laws had come to see Colleen show, and decided to head home based on the weather report.  My husband went to see them to their car.

Colleen was through with showing, so I started putting anything of ours that was loose and could blow around away (chairs, clothing, boots, etc.).  Suddenly the sky started darkening and the wind picked up.  Within 5 minutes, the wind was whipping the large tent around.  Then a pole must have snapped, because the tent started coming down on top of us.

The collapsed tent.

I told Colleen to run to the cow barn next to us (it was a solid built structure, not a large tent), while I helped make sure that everyone in the tent got out safely.  A few minutes later I made it over to the cow barn.  I could not find my child.  There may be a something worse than not knowing where your child is during a natural disaster, but I don't know what it is.  Those were the worst few moments of my life, and they were brief.  I started screaming her name, trying to find her.  The woman with me, who I had been working with, quickly put me at ease, telling me that she had seen Colleen earlier and told her daughter to take Colleen to their car.  She had recognized Colleen by her neon yellow shorts.  Because there were cows in the cow barn, and everyone was running into it, she was worried that the storm might spook the cows and cause injuries to people.  After a few minutes we ran out to their car, where Colleen and her daughter were both safe.  Colleen was a mess, worried about myself and Chad (we managed to reach Chad on his cell phone.  He was hiding out in the goat trailer).  I later reached his parents, who were also fine.  We watched the rest of the storm pass by in the safety of their car.

The collapsed tent from the outside.

As far as I know, there was only one person injured by the collapsing tent.  She is now recovering.  I am thankful that the damage was limited.  At our house, we only lost power for a few days.  From what I heard and saw, it could have been much worse.  Afterwards, there was a beautiful double rainbow.

Rainbow after the storm.  Colleen took this picture.

It was also interesting to see the reaction from the goats that we took to the fair.  Little Buddy, who had been quite happy at the fair getting attention from everyone, took the Chicken Little approach.  The next morning he had diarrhea and wouldn't eat.  Apparently he thought the world was going to end.  By the evening he was back to normal, trying to get everyone to pet him and wanting all the attention.  Charcoal, who wanted nothing to do with being at the fair and didn't eat much since we had gotten there, apparently figured that if that was the worst that was going to happen, now she's a survivor and she's going to live.  After that she certainly had an appetite.