State Park destruction in Michigan's UP

It's been nasty up there the last week n a half. Got chased out of MN last Tues by 2 tornados literally. Actually considered un doing the tie downs mid stream in case it got real! Kept driving away from the storm centers and never did cross a bridge to park under!
From where we were in WI pretty much every road between there and the UP was washed out in places and closed.

coolmom42 wrote:
All you can do is head for the sturdiest building in the campground, or at least out from under trees. A weather alert radio is great, but you have to know what frequencies to tune it to.

there are only 7-freq so it's not hard to find the right one. some, like ours, auto-tune the closet/strongest freq. except in large urban areas like chicago you'll usually find just one active freq.

All you can do is head for the sturdiest building in the campground, or at least out from under trees. A weather alert radio is great, but you have to know what frequencies to tune it to.

thewaggonerfamily wrote:
Thank goodness no one was hurt, but this looks bad. It got me thinking, What plans do you have for violent storms while camping?

http://www.uppermichiganssource.com/content/news/Storm-damage-cleanup-continues-in-the-western-UP-387866642.html

we always carry a weather alert rvcr for severe weather warnings. yes, cell phones provide that also but only if in range of a tower. when severe weather is active we make sure we're dressed with shoes on, wallet, keys, phones, tablet, etc. ready to head out if needed. have thought about creating an actual 'go-bag'. a complication is our dog. wouldm't want to leave her behind.

about all you can do in a campground is head for the shower bldg unless there is a dedicated storm shelter and in 30-yrs we've only found a handful of places that have real shelters.

From personal and up-close experience..while I was working at the Shuswap Provincial Park in BC we had one of 'those'. Over 100 big cottonwoods came down, a bunch of other species and maybe another 50 left as danger trees, to be felled over the next couple days.

Yes..one trailer was demolished. No injuries, but they were inside.

There is seldom much of an advanced warning for these things, so having a plan is good as long as it doesn't include leaving. As far it goes...people stand around like turkeys, staring at the coming storm. There were probably 100 folks watching the wind and cloud roll across the lake.

In BC, the liability rests with the RV owner. There is no park liability. People are there at their own risk.


Gary Haupt