BruceCarvesWax Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 Answer... a long damn ways! We were packing up last weekend and had everything in the truck at the fleamarket but the tents. I had all my legs and top buttons pushed so it was as low as it could go and I was pulling the legs together to finish it up and I saw a patio umbrella about 30 feet in the air just floating down and landed on my truck hood. Mind you there was NO wind at all and record high temp right as we were leaving. We have 3 tents so I look over and kelly is about done with her tent legs and she became covered with rolling dust and was hanging onto the tent. I went for the middle tent that was still set up and it drug me out about 10 feet and spun me around like I was throwing a discus ! We had ourselves a dust devil or what ever you call them. (Kelly says it was a .5 tornado) lol. When I quit spinning around the tent was on its side and had about 5 or 6 of the metal frame pieces snapped. I was in a daze, asked Kelly if she was ok and then noticed the tent I had down and was getting the legs pulled together was gone! It was behind a building about 50 yards away! The people around our booth on the right had no wind at all it was just a small path of hot dust. They said it opened up the tent and lifted it up in the air and threw it OVER the morton like pole building and it landed on the other side! Its an open side building and about 30 yards from where we were set up and its about 20 yards deep. They said it cleared the building by 20 feet and the building is probably 30 feet high in the middle! HOLY CRAP! Im glad we were packing up and no customers were out there. Lots of strollers and kids were there earlier and i could just see that tent I was spinning around with smacking everyone as we spun, wow that could have been bad. I chased the tent because we had a friend there that had his van close and thats why I was spinning around trying to keep it from hitting his new van. He told me there was no wind he felt at all but he saw it happen and started to run in front of the van to help me... but saw me start spinning and told me he thought to himself screw that the van has insurance... I dont. lol All said we threw 2 tents in the dumpster but did use some parts off the broken ones to mend the 3rd tent that had minor damage. Whew, nothing could have been done to prevent this type of deal either it just showed up and was gone just as fast. At that point in our packing up we would have had our stakes out of the ground anyway because you cant pull the pins to lower the tent with the stakes in the ground still. Weekend sucked, both days at 2 locations were record breaking heat so we were drained! Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairieannie Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 Wow!! I'm glad everyone survived that little devil without too much trauma.. but it doesn't sound very fun at all! Makes for fantastic Grandchildren stories though Bruce.. AND you can use it to prove how dangerous making candles is.. stories from the field!! Being from Nebraska we get those whirlwinds all the time here, and they look fairly innocuous, but I have watched a tin shed fly across a pasture fence that was 50 yards away, so I have not one ounce of trouble beliving your tent did what it did! I'm glad everyone is okay! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vicky_CO Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 Wow Bruce that was one scary story. I am glad everyone is okay and sorry about the tent but loosing a few tents is better than someone getting hurt you got lucky. Get some rest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fire and Ice Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 I'm very glad that's all you lost were two tents! Had it happened 2 hours earlier, it could have been much worse!:lipsrseal So glad everyone is alright! Great story though!!!!:embarasse Fire Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scented Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 Dang! I know they can really take off. We spent the second day of a show seeing how much it could lift me off the ground. Ack!I'm glad everyone is OK there too. A little ol' dust devil doing that? Wow. Bummers you lost two tents though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tangerine Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 Wow, this is pretty scary! Are there EZ up tents that are similar to the Gustbuster umbrellas? I'm wondering if those would get carried away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceCarvesWax Posted June 23, 2007 Author Share Posted June 23, 2007 Yeah it sure was crazy. We always tie all the tents together with bungees so earlier it would have probably turned over our tables and we could have lost tons of product or at least spend a bunch of time cleaning it up but as hot as it was and as frustrated as we were we would have been ready to leave it all there and drive home. Hope we dont see one of them again but they told us the week before one picked up someones tent and sent if rolling end over end in the parking lot. I guess they say the heat has alot to do with these things forming... like a mini tornado with heat from the ground hitting cooler air above. I truly dont think being spiked or screwed into the ground would have helped much, I have seen the wind bend and break them from high winds that come with a sudden storm also. They might stay spiked into the ground but the tent will be bent to the ground. One more strange thing about it..the bottom part of the tent legs, the part that slides into the top half of the leg to adjust how high it is? One of them was still in our booth space just laying on the ground. Must have picked up the tent so fast that it pulled right out. The cheap easy ups you can pull them out of, but never had it happen to the higher priced ones. Weird stuff.Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meridith Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 We had this happen a couple weeks ago too but it was during our show and not afterwards. We had the tent weighted down with sand bags but that was not enough for the gust of wind that came along. Our tent was picked up and blew away and broke and we lost a bunch of candles that were picked up in the gust too and blown away - over $100 worth of candles shattered. No one was hurt though and I'm glad no one was hurt with you too Bruce. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceCarvesWax Posted June 23, 2007 Author Share Posted June 23, 2007 We had this happen a couple weeks ago too but it was during our show and not afterwards. We had the tent weighted down with sand bags but that was not enough for the gust of wind that came along. Our tent was picked up and blew away and broke and we lost a bunch of candles that were picked up in the gust too and blown away - over $100 worth of candles shattered. No one was hurt though and I'm glad no one was hurt with you too Bruce.Yeah the wind will take them if it wants to and nothing will hold them down. Im glad it happened later for us... could you imagine our 140 glass jars of incense being turned over and having well over 14 thousand incense sticks mixing up with broken glass on the ground! Talk about almost a huge mess! (not to mention all the candles on the tables)Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Late Night Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 Wow! That is frightening. I've never heard of those. I'm so glad you are okay but I did have to smile at the .5 tornado. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VerticallyEnhanced Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 (Kelly says it was a .5 tornadoI chuckled at that as well! Not a laughing matter all in alll, though. I am glad it was not worse, but dang...still an expensive loss. That is what my hubby is the most frightened about...the wind. *Knock on wood* we have never been met with a .5 gust-o-wind. I laugh because he has me SO weighted down but I know nothing would stop something like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Candybee Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 Dang Bruce! What a story! Glad you and everyone is okay. Sorry you lost your tents. I have never seen one fly away but have seen them blown around a bit. I always worry when it gets windy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Di_in_AZ Posted June 24, 2007 Share Posted June 24, 2007 Wow Bruce, you always have such interesting posts Are you sure you were destined for candles? We have dust devils here in AZ quite frequently, but I have never seen one hit our outdoor show. I have on one occasion, been stood up holding the poles in my canopy while the wind felt like it was going to suck it up, I can not imagine it actually lifting off! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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