Heroes (and sheroes) of the 2008 hail storm

[benazeman]

Seeing our big tents collapse, I really thought someone was going to be killed by a falling pole, or electrocuted. Incredibly we had no fatalities and NO MAJOR INJURIES!!!

I believe this is because our folks stepped up, jumped in and helped people at great personal risk to themselves. I observed several of these instances and wondered if others observed it as well.

John Jesse, one of the heads of Security and husband to our volunteer coordinator Barbara Jesse. He realized that the propane tanks were turned on inside the concessions tent, where over a hundred people were screaming and trying to stay safe. He ran across the mud field to turn them off - take it from me, it was like being pelted with stones the whole time. Thanks, John - you are a credit to the Plymouth Police Department and it's great to have you!

Eric (I don't know his last name - about 15 years old and the only one licensed to fix the golf carts on site). He saw my disabled crew member, 14 year old McCartney, stuck under a table - dragged her out and to safety. Did a similar thing for a man stuck under a table that was wedged under a pole. He ran into danger while adult men were cowering - you go, boy!

An unknown girl, about 11 years old, made sure her screaming younger brother was safe. She then approached me as I was trying to hold down the concessions tent (I was OUTSIDE the tent during the worst of the hailstorm, trying to hold it down by the weakest tent stake) and asked WHAT SHE COULD DO TO HELP!! I told her to go in the tent and tell everyone to evacuate - the tent was coming down. She did so, and probably saved a life or two. I have no idea who she was and might not even recognize her if I saw her now.

What did others see?

[FyreGoddess]

Not seen, but heard from all the kids after it happened...

My 14 y/o son, Taran and his friend Anna (both Teen Crew) were in the Volunteer tent when it started to come down and they evacuated. The two of them wound up with Tabby (4 years old), who had run up to them the moment she saw them.

They hazarded the hail and wind and rain and found a group of people without a car. They formed a "Penguin Huddle" around Tabby to keep her safe and warm while the women explained the scientific reasons that hail forms. It worked amazingly well to keep the teens calm and together and, hey, they learned something interesting!

Anna, carrying Tabby, fell in the mud and started to lose it a little (and no wonder in that situation!), so Taran picked her up and braced her, supporting her as she carried Tabby to safety/shelter.

Taran convinced a group of people in a van to take Anna and Tabby in with them and he went off to (in order of priority) find Tabby's dad and tell him he was safe; find his grandmother (Deb @ A4K) and tell her *everyone* was safe; find me because he knew his mom would take care of him.

Even after he found me and I was taking him to the car to warm up and avoid hypothermia (which he did avoid), he ran off to tell Tabby's dad and his grandmother where everyone was and that they were safe. I was really impressed to see these young teens really step up and take responsibility, especially when they found themselves in charge of a scared and crying 4 year old.

[Fantine729]

My husband and I were in the kids' activity tent (not the family stage) when the storm came back around and I have never been so impressed with a group of people. Everyone seemed to understand that we had to keep it together for the kids, some of whom were very scared (one of my 14-month-olds, on the other hand, was napping through most of it and the other was completely nonplussed). The volunteers got everyone into the middle of the tent, but away from the metal poles, and enlisted the help of as many adults as they could to man the outer poles and/or the canvas sides and top. They even tried to start some singing to take the kids' minds off of it. As a result, I totally had no idea how bad it was until someone came and said we had to evacuate the tent right then and there (because others had collapsed, I guess). I just thought it was a pretty good thunderstorm. It really was very well done.

[benazeman]

Awesome to hear it!

What about others? Were you a hero? Did someone save you? Did you observe acts of heroism?

[allisonhenry]

I have heard/read lots of anecdotes about small groups of people keeping the music going during the storm, and I think it helped many folks! I heard that they were singing "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" in the merch tent, and "row row row your boat" somewhere else. In the acoustic live booth, we were singing the titanic song. The falcon ridge spirit helped us focus on the music and community, rather than on the storm, and I think we "forgot" how bad the storm was even just for a few minutes. I think the shared music kept us from losing it completely!

[Jude]

I was safely ensconced in the merch trailer during the storm - we heard the hail beginning to hit the roof, mopping up puddles from dripping roof vents, and trying to keep the doors from blowing open and off, (the merch trailer is the RV equivalent of a sh*tbox, which is not to say that we do not love it)

We tried to pull patrons with small kids into the trailer but the door was blowing too much and everything too loud to catch anyone's ear. We eventually pulled one mother with a couple of terrified kids (who turned out to be Patty Larkin) out of the at-risk merch tent. One patron came in with his wife who was having a panic attack; we sat her down and tried to calm her down - while he pitched in to help as the artist merchandise started pouring into the trailer. Randall Williams was amazing - everytime we looked up, there he was with a box of CDs or something. Amazingly, very little of the merchandise got lost or damaged - tee shirts got wet, some sheet music got wrecked, but for the most part, it all came through. I'm pretty sure the merch tent would have gone down had not the folks inside (volunteers and patrons) worked to keep the flaps down, the water off the roof, the side poles in the ground, etc. - but it seemed like an isolated issue from our vantage point.

Honestly, had no idea of the chaos that was going on around the festival grounds......

[sdgold60]

I made it as far as the WFUV booth. A number of radio station volunteers and staff were there. There was a collaborative effort to hold the booth down. The tops dumped water, the sides needed to be zipped. The Staff member Linda went above the call of duty, standing in the storm to work on the booth. As she tried to zip it, secure it, more people tried to get in and get a poncho or get shelter. With every effort to secure it, more people came and she never turned anyone away, called for kids to come in the booth and expressed her concern for the vendors whose booths were being blown away. She accepted all for refuge, standing in the rain while trying to save the FUV booth

She was a standout to me.

[songster1928]

I took shelter in the Ticket Tent when the worst of the storm started. The wind started to blow the wooden stakes out of the wet ground. Seeing that, several of us started telling people (larger size preferable) to hold the stakes down because of the danger posed by 4-5' stakes blowing around. After a minute or two it looked like every stake had at least one person on it. The crowd in the Ticket Tent remained calm.

Anne Saunders has reported 70 mph winds. I had no way to measure the wind but as a 6'3" guy it took all my strength to hold that stake down.

In the end, that tent stayed up. Does the credit go to a whole lot of folks who stood their ground, held the stakes, and took the pelting hail and rain? Perhaps.

Personally I think the word "hero" is overused. My father, who won a couple of medals for heroism in WW II, always said he only did what he thought was necessary in the situation, he never felt or wanted to be heroic. A whole group of us did what was necessary to protect ourselves and others at that tent and I'm proud to be associated with a group of people whose names I don't know but who to me embodied the spirit of Falcon Ridge.

[cmj1138]

I'd like to ditto that last post. I was in the ticket tent too, and several folks of various ages, sizes, and genders (and some in shorts and sandles w/o much water proof gear) worked quickly to secure all the electronics, shut of the electricity, secure the recipts and hold up the failing poles w/their bodies, even though it meant getting the worst of the wet and the hail. I remember two late-teens/early twenty looking folks, one male and one female, who jumped right into secure the poles and push up the fallen part of the tent as soon as it happned (the end closest to the main stage had partially collapsed and was filling with water, at least one of the wood poles was out, and one or two of the the big metal spikes had come out) to keep it from getting dragged down. After a few minutes other people started to join us as the initial shock was wearing off and the folks who were doing things on their own started as other people in the tent for help. There was definitely a period of shock and chaos, followed by people pulling together to help everyone out. way to go ticket tent!