Campground Tragedy

Sad to hear these things prayers for all

Believe it or not I have seen that happen.. Sort of (Was a car not a camper, the victim was older, and a public street (Freeway service drive) not a campground... Directly outside the window of "my" office... We watched them cut the tree up to get her out... Not good.

So sorry, we almost saw it happen this weekend in TN at a very nice well maintained campground. Campers next to us had 2 bag chairs sitting on the bank of the river. Kids and people were in them all day. We heard a crack and a very big tree branch fell dead center of the folding chair. Thank goodness it was dinner time for them. I am so happy dinner was going on we were 20' away.

Kind of reminds me of about 20 years ago when we were camping at Hoffmaster state park in Michigan for a weekend trip. A storm had rolled thru with strait line winds in the middle of the night. We woke up to the winds and I took a peek outside to see a lot of people getting the heck out of there. We rode it out for the 20 minute or so till it passed, the next morning there were trees everywhere blown over. At that time the DNR rolled thru the campground and over loudspeaker told everybody to pack up and go home as they had a mess on there hands.

Scariest night I ever had camping.

Dan

We were in Cincinnati a couple of years ago and 2 nights of storms with 70 plus mph straight line winds snapped a huge pine tree. That morning the family at that campsite packed up their tent and left. We watched it from the bath house. They probably don't even realize how lucky they were. We always heed the warnings and evacuate.

Two years ago this month my daughter and I road out a storm at a campground in Kansas. My wife had to work that night and left the camper at about 12:15 am. About 60 seconds after she pulled away from the camper a big straight line wind came through and blew for about 2-3 minutes. The camper was rocking back and forth so bad my daughter had to hang on to the kitchen counter and the dinette bench back rest thinking the camper was going to roll over. Suddenly we heard a big crash. When everything settled down I opened the door to find a tree that was about 3 foot in diameter laying next to my truck. Exactly where my wife was parked in her car. The tree missed the truck by a foot and the camper by about 5 feet.

The next morning it took the park staff about 4 hours to clear the debris away so we could drive out of the park. About 4 camp sites down another tree the same size came down. These trees were about 70 feet tall. Never felt so lucky in my life.

A few years ago we had a bad winter storm with lots of ice and broken tree limbs. One night , the next summer, I was camping and went to bed normally. There was No Wind that night !! The next morning I woke up to find a fairly small branch on the ground next to my truck. I thought to myself "Glad it missed my truck". Then I looked at the truck to find the windshield broken and and the fender caved in. Funny how that small branch could do that much damage.

Insurance covered it. (First claim I had made in almost 30 years. Except for the occasional windshield. )

Thankfully it was close to home because my Travel Trailer was stuck at the park for a week while the pickup was in the body shop.

In August 2015 in Yosemite NP Upper Pines Campground - two teens were killed by a falling tree limb.

In Jan 2012 - a concession employee was killed by a falling tree in Yosemite.

When we were there a couple weeks ago, the number of stumps and logs awaiting removal in the campgrounds showed that close to 1/2 of the trees have been taken down in the Yosemite Valley campgrounds. Many trees have died from the drought, and pines have been killed by beetles.

That's a terrible tragedy :(

Prayers for the family and everyone involved.