Hail No! Del Yeah! Tell us your storm stories...

[DelFest]

Were you blown away by DelFest? Tell us your stories and how you survived the Del-uge of 2009

[Steve Deems]

Sam had just started playing, the clouds didn't look ominous but rather seen as a cooling relief from the sun. Then it started to sprinkle big rain drops. Then pure hell, we took shelter with many others in the beer tent for a while. It seemed to lessen up so we decided to make a run for the camp site about a 1/2 mile or so near the ball fields. Almost made it when the second wave hit, took shelter with some nice folks in their canopy, was helping to hold it down when the lightning hit close and someone said let go of the metal, which we did and the canopy eventually collapsed on us. Then made a run for a pavillion and held on to a 6x6 wood post as the wind howled. Thought sure we were getting ready to have a tornado descend on us. Finally it slowed enough to make it to the camp site only to not see my tent! Some friends said they had seen it fly over the building with theirs. It started again, sat in the car and tried to warm up.
After a while was able to start looking for stuff, found my tent a couple of hundred feet away, between the camp and the tent were strewn, sleeping bag, air mattress, couple of packs, food stuff and every piece of clothing I had with me. Now all wet clothing. Amazingly found everything but the t-shirt I had bought Friday evening. We took a vote and headed home, sorry to miss the remaing music, especially Salmon, but getting to old to run around soaked to the bone.
Will I be back.........DEL YEAH.

[walter b robertson]

ya im too old for that also...i feel us late arrivals got ripped of for our 55 bucks.we waited for 2 hours after the storm soaked as you describe,with no announcement ..nothing finally left for home over 2 hours later.after seeing 20 minutes of music.no response from delfest on my queries,they won get me again....i am glad you recovered your things and are safe though..

[leah kidwell]

I was scared to death during the storm. Did alot of praying. Never seen anything like that before. Spent the whole time helping a vendor try to hold her tent together. Was able to still see Old Crow perform. Excellent!

[Kathy Diggins]

Me too,,,My main reason to be there was for OCMS...and I was front and center.....I had to leave too, late Sat night....but had a great time...made some awesome friends...
Hope the folks who were holding on to those metal easy ups wernt fried by lightening...heard a couple got a good zap...

[Ayda Swartz]

After taking the kids for a swim in the Potomac...we all got cleaned up and headed over to see Sam Bush...one of our all time favorites. I think we heard one song maybe two...can't really remember but the rain started as these huge raindrops. I put up my large umbrella and figured it will be a passing storm. The "We" included myself, my 5 year old, 2 friends and their 2 children who are 7 & 9. My husband is a taper and was set up with many others right in front of the soundboard. My 10 year old son, Bradley, made friends with Josh McCoury and I allowed him to run around with him for a bit...so he was no where in sight. Well, the large drops turned into a down pour pretty quickly. My friends grabbed their tarp and covered themselves with it while William and I both had umbrellas in our seats. This was okay for about 10 minutes until the hail started. My son went under the tarp with our friends and I followed about 15 minutes later. My husband was hunkered down with an umbrella, poncho over the wagon with everyone's recording equipment, and a cup bailing the poncho constantly to keep the equipment dry. We handled this for awhile...moved closer to the sound stage tent where others were huddled...when the 2nd wave started this is when it got very scary. At this point I decided I had to know if my 10 year old was okay. I made a run to the merchandise tent where I knew Josh's mom was before this hit. I asked if Bradley was there...they called his name a couple times and sure enough he was there, happy and mostly dry. I told him to stay put. When I went back to the others the 7 & 9 year olds were scared out of their minds...I looked out from under the tarp and it was the first time I realized how bad the storm really was as I witnessed a vendor tent flying across the field towards the VIP area. I said we have got to get out of here. At that point we ran over to the VIP tent where many others seemed to be holding out okay...the lounge area was about to collapse so everyone went under the red & white striped tent. This was okay but not for long. My 5 year old for the first time couldn't take the cold that his feet were feeling since we ran across the mud, hail and rain and his feet hurt really badly. He started to get very upset. At this time, the next and worst round of hail and wind hit. The tent started to lift up and down...everyone grabbed on and held it down...at this point all 3 kids are in hysterics. I tell my friends I'm taking William and working my way to the grandstand...I couldn't help hold the tent so I felt it was best to seek different shelter with my son. We made it over to the sound stage where my husband was still outside with the equipment. He was shuttering from being soaked to the bone, cold and kneeling to keep the equipment dry this whole time. I put my son in the sound board tent and told my husband that he is CRAZY! Have everyone get their equipment into the sound tent and get the h*&! outta there. (My husband had major spinal fusion surgery 7 weeks ago...he shouldn't had done any of that...but he couldn't help himself.) So, they picked up the whole wagon and carried it into the tent. I took William and headed towards the stands which felt like a mile away...and we made it to the merchandise tent...we stayed there with Bradley and everyone else who was holding down the tent...lots of children in there...some sleeping (which is amazing and quite calming when your adrenaline is racing.) Someone there was nice enough to help William and get him settled in...I tried to find my friends but did not see them. Once it quieted down...we thanked everyone for their help and taking care of Bradley in my absence. We headed back to our tent site by the drainage pond and our tent was fine...but our 15' Coleman shelter had been bent and destroyed by the wind. We're thankful it did not blow away so that no one got hurt but it was gone. Our tents were dry and everyone was okay. Our friends had made it back as well.b It took us until 9 pm to clean up the mess...we decided to go out to dinner at that point and call it a night. We couldn't believe our eyes and ears when we returned to hear Leftover playing on the main stage. We were in shock...you all are amazing. It was the closest experience I've ever had to a natural disaster...I can only imagine how the people must have felt in Louisiana with the Hurricanes or to live in Tornado alley...FRIGHTENING!

We stayed the night and got ourselves packed up ready to go in the morning. By the time we were ready to head out to listen to the music...the clouds rolled in, we saw a crack of lightning and rain. We decided to head home...coulnd't go through it again...just wasn't worth it. But, we had a blast all day Friday and most of the day on Saturday. We went to the First Delfest and we plan on being at the 3rd Delfest too! Everyone came together, battled a horrible circumstance, and proceeded to still come out shining. I am sorry for anyone who got hurt during this caper...I had heard that a couple people were injured as a result of the lightning. I hope they all recover quickly.

[Kathy Diggins]

wooooow, thats a mouth full...

[jeff smith]

Hello,
We are glad to see you made it home safely. It was our RV that you took shelter in on Sunday. We were glad to be able to help you and your family. Hope to see you at the next Delfest.

Jeff and Kim Smith

[christopher bell]

Oh yayyy,.. I'm so glad that you saw this. Chris had wondered if I had gotten any contact info. from you. If you guys are going to be there next year then we will definitely see you guys there!! Thanks again!
The Bells :0)

[Steve Sherman]

We had three kids 5,3,6 mos. Our tent was flattened and we were all huddled inside under two air mattresses- I was concerned about flying debris. That was before the golf ball sized hail. I'm a pretty understated kind of dude, and that was the worst storm I've seen. It was also surprising that there were two rounds of hail, and the overall length.

After the hail stopped and the kids were in the van with my wife, I started to pack up all of my sopping wet stuff. In no time, people came over to help out. Thank You all! This crowd restores my faith in humanity, and it's the reason we will be back!

I've have a few questions:

1. Was that a microburst thunderstorm? (I'm wondering if there were any meteorlogical reports, etc.)
2. Was anyone struck by lightning (I heard that someone was)
3. Just how fast was that wind whipping? I would certainly think it was well over 50 mph.

4. Is there a better group of people anywhere than the crowd at Del Fest?

Thanks everyone!

[jen]

I dont know what kind of storm it was but I was talking to someone who was working the event and he said 4 people were struck trying to hold down tents but no on was seriously injured

[Krista Morris]

I spent the weekend promoting Frostburg State University's Appalachian Festival and of course enjoying the music. We were under our canopy when the rain started. It was refreshing at first, as the day had been incredibly hot. We moved our supplies to the back of our table to stop them from getting wet but as the rain increased I quickly gathered our papers, along with our cell phones and wallets and stuck them in the tent, which surprisingly survived. Then the hail came. We lowered our canopy to shield ourselves from the hail, as did our friends from WFWM next to us. The wind started to pick up. By this time we were all soaked to the bone and the canopies did little to shield us from the progressively bigger ice balls. We were hanging on to keep things from blowing away. I'm not going to lie. I was absolutely hysterical. I was screaming annoyingly and clinging to the people around me whenever possible. The thunder, lightning, and wind, along with the hail had me entirely convinced that this was a tornado. I am petrified of tornadoes in the first place, having gone through a few before, and being in a field under an unsturdy canopy during such a situation is something from my nightmares. The weird thing was that we would get a burst of really warm air, followed by a burst of icy cold air, and we had several updrafts, which furthered my tornado theory. Several times I nearly attempted to run through the hail toward the grandstand but lucky for me there were people around to convince me to stay under the canopy for fear of my safety in the hail. At one point I considered making a break for the nearby porta potties for shelter. I pretty much became that person in horror movies who gets so scared that he does something really stupid which causes more harm than good. I later learned that several of the porta potties got blown over so you can imagine how grateful I was that I didn't hide in one. When the storm finally seemed to stop we were all relieved, but I noticed that everything was very calm...too calm. I had experienced this before and I wasn't going to stick around for the new part of the storm which I assumed was coming. My panic returned and this time I did head for the grand stand but my friends were more optimistic. I started to walk there, it began to rain again, and then I ran. I went underneath the grandstand with many others as the hail and wind returned. I could see hail flying sideways by the garage type door. We closed the door and I moved to the middle of the building to talk to a security guard about the situation. Then ceiling tiles from the drop ceiling started to fall in, with water coming in behind. Water came in the garage doors as well. I thought I was relatively safe (this was better than being under the canopy) until we were informed that we had to evacuate the building for fear of the ceiling caving in entirely. I asked where we should go but no one seemed to have any clue. My first choice was the women's showers, probably the safest place if this was a tornado....if I could get there. I decided that if we were evacuating the building I was going to be one of the first out to make sure I found space in one of the smaller buildings. I made my way to the front and went into the hail and wind. I made a break for it with my destination in mind but luckily found that one of the concessions connected to the grandstand had a door open, so I ran in there with others and sat back in the corner, soaked and terrified.

I was really scared but relatively sheltered compared to my friends back at WFWM and my fellow volunteer at the Appalachian Festival canopy. The storm came in three progressively worse bouts and they stayed as long as possible. They told me that they finally gave up hope on the canopies and were all relatively frightened and finally headed for shelter in nearby cars. When I returned our canopy was destroyed along with those of WFWM, App Indie, and nearly all of the other non profits and several of the vendors. Somehow our table was upside down under the canopy. The things I had put in my tent were dry, as they were sitting on top of a stool. We were able to rig our tent back up for the next day, but WFWM had lost nearly all of their promotional materials and their canopy was useless. After setting our canopy back up as best we could, I tried to help others wherever possible and spent some time picking up trash.

The storm was probably the most terrifying experiences of my life thus far. However, seeing everyone come together afterward was pretty awesome. Everywhere people were helping each other, making new friends, and talking with people about the experience. The pile of metal and debris, referred to by many as a work of art, that appeared in the middle of the music meadow definitely spoke volumes about the storm.

[Stephen Mabon]

My wife and I and our 2 boys (4 and 2) got out before the third storm hit and headed home. My 2 year old was really frightened and we just had to got. That, and the fact that our tent and canopy got creamed while we watched videos in the car. After the first storm our tent had turned over as all of the stakes were pulled out of the ground. I restaked it with a vengence before the second storm hit, so all of the poles got bent in the second storm. Half of it caved in and took on serious water. We had a pretty nice REI tent-so that says something about the storm. Are tornados common in this area? I do think that Delfest can improve on the storm warning part of their organization. Loud speakers telling people to get to their campsites would have helped. That being said, we loved Delfest and will be back next year. We go to Merlefest every year and sometimes Grey Fox, but with a festival this great so close to home, Delfest is going to be our main musical vacation from now on. Totally bummed about missing all of the rest of the music!