What's the worst storm you have been in while camping?

[lushy]

Just curious of everyone's experience with Mother Nature. Here's one of ours.

South Dakota in 2011 a storm is rolling in. I'm not one to get uneasy about the weather but this one had me very concerned for the wife and family. I think the pictures will tell the rest of the story.









And then after it passed by:

[rwbradley]

Yikes, if this was a contest, I am thinking verado09 could win this 🙂

[verado09]

I wasn't there when it happened. On August 31, 2014, a strong wind storm, possible tornados (I heard three or four tornados touch down). I was in Denison watching the storm to come through then later that night I heard the Yellow Smoke campground got hammered by strong wind (70 mph) overturn five campers down and a lot of damages. They all parked by water with no trees in front of campers, that is how the wind knock them down. The rest of campground are ok, no damage. Nobody were injured.

[golf_bears]

lushy, Is that Custer Gulch RV Park in Custer, SD?

We were there in late fall of 2013. Left just 2 days ahead of the big snow storm. Dropped nearly 3 feet of snow in the RV park. Headed East trying to outrun the storm back to WI. Was a hoot!!!!

[minn_camping_fa]

We've had a few doozies. Tornado warnings where the ranger came and told us to go to the shelter. A hail storm where it hailed so hard it punched holes in our awning fabric even though the awning was rolled up. That one dimpled our truck and our a/c unit but thankfully no other major damage.

The worst was at Itasca State Park in northern Minnesota. We were on a pontoon boat in the middle of the lake when it went from sunny to almost night-like dark in a matter of minutes. Hubby knew we needed to get off the water asap. We returned the boat and drove a few minutes back to the cg, rolled up the awning and stashed things in the truck. Made it into the camper about a minute before the storm hit. Straight line winds up to 80 mph, took 100 year old trees down all around us. Across the road a tree went down on top of their truck. The park was cut off from the world because all roads were blocked by trees. Power was out until the next day.

After the storm we walked around checking on people. A couple in a tent had a close call, had just decided to leave their tent and take cover in their car when a tree came down on their tent. They were picking up their belongings which had been scattered everywhere. We saw quite a bit of damage to RV's and the park buildings. Many awnings tore off. Branches, leaves, debris everywhere. Thankfully no injuries, which is amazing considering the trees down.

We were so blessed, all trees/branches came down around our hybrid trailer and not on top of it. We didn't even realize how bad the storm was until we looked around afterwards. It could have so easily gone bad for us.

This first picture is the tent I mentioned above-


This was about 6 feet in diameter-


A park building-


Trees snapped off-

[whateverearl]

1. Sandy, in the Keys. The family was all screaming for us to "get out of there!" We would have driven into it if we had tried to run. Battened down and rode it out. When we left, it took us a week and a half to get home to PA.
2. Denver. Remember all the flooding they had there in the summer of 2013? Yeah, we were there for a bit of it. We had 4-5" of rain in a matter of 2-3 hours. Unfortunately, we didn't think about the slide out awnings and had a failure on the long one, naturally. (we had already named that trip the Natural Disaster Tour 2013)

[Padlin]

The storm that flooded Nashville in 2010.

We left Nashville headed to Memphis with no idea there was a storm on the way. Stopped at a popular state park on the way and was surprised to find the CG almost empty, had a perfect water front site. After a beautiful afternoon it started to rain. Spent one night in the bathroom with something like half a dozen tornado warnings, between warnings the water rose, by the end it was 3 feet from the trailer. Flooding everywhere, roads closed so there was no where to go for 3 days. Had no leaks in the hybrid but it didn't matter, everything was so damp you probably couldn't tell the difference.

Side note: we found the weather radio useless other then waking us up constantly. If you don't know the surrounding county names, as well as the one you're in, the reports mean nothing.

My thanks go out to the camp hosts who spent the night driving around in the golf cart beeping the horn every time a valid warning was in effect to herd us to the bathhouse. Got to know the other half dozen campers pretty well that night.

[mountainsam]

Worst storm was in Council Bluffs IA. We set up in the local casino camping area. We went across the river to have dinner with friends and came back to a flood. This happened in June 2014 during the College World Series. We were told the following day that it happens every year. The picture was after 12 hours of steady pumping. The MH on either side of us had water in their basements.

Well, so much for the picture!!

[Pangaea_Ron]

We were camped on the Oregon Coast in Lincoln City in February with our old Class C. When we checked into the RV Park they let us know that there was a big story coming, which we were well aware of. They put us between two large Class A MH's to help keep us on the ground. It blew 72 mph that night, and I thought that we were indeed going to lift off. There was lots of crashing, banging and shaking, and I thought that the fluttering roof vents were going to leave the roof. I had a roll of duct tape and a plastic platter ready to replace it.

We had planned on a relaxing trip along the Oregon Coast, walking hand in hand on the beach, but we felt like we were in survival conditions trying to crawl to the top of the sand dunes while getting sand etched.

[Trlrboy]

We were camped at Fort Parker SP in Texas when a tornado came ripping across the lake toward the campground. Luckily it missed our camping loop but it tore through the primitive loop about 1/4 mile away. Check out these pictures.

Fort Parker tornado pics

[Sunset_Gypsies]

We were work camping at Pelican Cove campground, Folly Beach SC when the great storm of 1993 hit. Our camper was parked by the seawall on the Folly River.


This is a view from our camper window.


This view is looking west from another window.

This is a link to Linda's blog about our life on Folly Island and that unusual storm.


Our old camper many years later.

[wannavolunteerF]

Tent camping at St Joe State Park on FL gulf coast. Site was just inside dunes from beach. Thunderstorm came up, and it was raining so hard, it came right through tent and rain fly. When lightening started up, we bailed for truck. We could feel the static from the lightening it was hitting so close on the other side of dunes. The most scared I have ever been of lightening, and I live where it is common.

At state park near home first trip out with brand new TT, didn't pay attention to weather forecast and left awning out overnight. thought I had it slanted, but apparently not enough. The rainstorm that came through overnight dumped about 3 inches of rain within an hour or two. My awning arm & roller was not the only one lost in the campground that night. Park employees and other campers were great at helping out with getting awnings closed/secured so Rv's could travel. Still one of my favorite parks to spend time.

[denlock]

We were camping in Groveland Oaks MI a few years ago. A storm came in with high winds and torrential rain. Our motorhome was rocking and rolling during this. Later while watching the local news, they were talking about the tornado that touched down in Groveland Oaks.

[Community Alumni]

Hurricane Frances in 2004 in our 5th wheel (at the time).

[down_home]

Not sure but one bade n was in 2011, I think, in Coldwater Michigan. tornadoes sighted headed for the campground. None hit but power was cut.
It poured buckets, so much so we brought the slides in. The coach rocked much of the night. The soil there is sandy so there was no standing water. The chain of lakes was noticeably higher.
This past May, in NC we had a gully washer. They went around telling everyone of the approaching storm. Slides in and really heavy rain all night. No leaks but many others had them. Coach was scrubbed clean, including wheels since we were sitting on pavement. Several that had been warned to move off lower level and soft ground didn't and stayed a while longer. One of two had to be pulled out.
On the way west near Joplin Mo we hit a gully washer, while on the road. We could not see a thing and were crawling. Wipers had no effect. All the dirt and rock dust from around St Louis was thoroughly blasted out from under.
In Tx and Oklahoma and Kansas in 2010 we had constant very high winds on our left side. We drove, in Tx mostly on the shoulder. When opposing traffic came along they went to the shoulder especially semis. In Oklahoma it was narrow Interstate with reduced speed fifty fife as compared to 75 on wide country roads in Texas. Our slide awning repeatedly unfurled. The Dealer when they repaired it after they wrecked it left the metal cover off the awning and we haven't been able to find another one.
In Arizona in 12 east, of Kingman, we had lots of rain, then snow and then dust storm to turn it into brick.
West on I40 outside, of one,of them towns we had very high winds toss semis off the opposing lanes toward us but stopped in the median. I'll thing of some more. One of them has got to be worse.