Monday, May 29, 2006

Severe Weather

Yesterday around 11:00 a.m. we received a phone call from the National Weather Service warning us of severe weather. They felt we would get hit by high winds, golf ball size hail and rain. Needless to say, we all immediately thought of what happened during the 1999 blow down.

Everyone starting "battering down the hatches." The first project was to close the dock. Several parties who were just leaving for a day on the water were told to stay put. The pontoon boat which was cruising in front of the lodge was pulled back. Lee went out by boat to warn other guests to get off the water.

On the dock, all the boats were beached. If high winds occur, the weight of those boats pulling on the dock can increase the chances of the main dock breaking free. Canoes on the beach were turned upside down.

Jason, our maintenance man, put the generator in his truck. We have a special circuit in the lodge that can be used by a generator for give the kitchen some power. A switch isolates this circuit from the main power so that we do not send power out backwards into the Arrowhead Electric grid.

Several of us tried to go on line for a radar picture but we lost our internet connection almost immediately. That was not a good sign.

Within a half an hour the sky really started to turn color. The morning sunshine has turned to gray and foggy. The hot muggy air had turned to a cool freshness. Next the sky turned very, very black and green -- just the way it looked before the blow down. We could also hear thunder rumbling in.

When the storm hit, we got wind, rain and hail. Luckily none of the three were as bad as predicted. It was, however, quite a storm to watch from inside the lodge or a cabin. For about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, it passed in front of us.

By 2:00 it was all over. By 2:30 or 3:00 the sun was shining like nothing had happened. The best part was that we never lost of electricity. For those of us who have lived here a while, not losing power in a storm is a great blessing. The lodge was even able to have their Sunday night barbeque outside.

2 comments:

cmiller said...

Sue Thanks for the storm update. Pete and I watched the weather channel and radar helplessly back here and wondered if our cabin would blow off the hill! Seriously, We have yet devised a way to bring our boat out of the water, and it was tied extra good. But if you see a red Lund floating.... well... grab it for us!
See you soon!

Carol Miller

Sue Kerfoot said...

Carol,

Hopefully we won't have too many severe weather comments to make. We always watch for stray boats after something like that.

Sue