Kansas...

 

I made a reference in the previous post to the Wizard of Oz.  This one's on me.

About 5:30, we were playing cards and watching the weather on the local TV station.  Just east of us had just received about 4 inches of rain in a short time.  It was raining here, but not pounding.  I pulled up weather radar... "Oh, that's 'a hook' in that storm - that is a chance for some seriously ugly weather... and it's coming up on us."

A couple minutes later, the rain was seriously pounding and we got hit by several major gusts... by "major gusts" I'm talking: I would estimate well over 70mph.  You couldn't see but 20 feet out the windows, but the debris hitting our coach told us to hang on.  Branches busting off trees and flying by.  Fortunate for us, we were pointed pretty much into the wind.  This tree next to us busted off about half way up (photo taken from our door)...

Looks like it may have gone done some damage to the roof of the bath-house.  Of course, our power went out.  But, the TV can run on the inverter, so we still had some local news/weather... and no mention of the conditions we were in.  A large tree on the other side of us has busted branches dangling...

Hard to tell through the rain, but that low portion to the right of the tree wasn't low just a few minutes ago.  We are now getting pea size hail and even more rain.  The storm that was supposed to move on over us now looks like it is just sitting here.

The woman who owns the campground was out surveying damage, when I went out to try the power at the pedestal... power is out to the whole campground.  Her husband is driving around with a tractor with a front end loader, picking up tree debris.  A camper across the road from us had a pop-up shelter up, looks like no one is there - that shelter is trashed.  Joan just pulled up a local power company website: power is out all around us... I'm guessing lines down due to the wind and power surges thanks to the lightning.

People in rigs who got in just as the ugly stuff hit are waiting it out in their trucks.  Some sites look like they are ankle-deep in puddles.  The interior roads are going to mucky when people try to get out of here... I think we'll not be the first ones out tomorrow morning.

More rain and thunderstorms are predicted through the night.  We'll keep our slide-outs pulled in (less surface area for the wind to tear at or hail to beat up).  We should be good on our batteries; the fridge switched itself over to propane when the power went out.

6:35 - the power just came back on and people are trying to get set up as they roll in.  The owner lady told me they are full tonight... sure looks like it, with the way people are pulling in.  There's a worker out there with a chain saw working on that busted tree next to us.

Earlier, I was concerned about getting sleep due to the sketchy look of some of these camping conveyances and the off-level slope of the site.  More likely, I'll be watching weather radar - looks like more crap coming our way.

That's a graphic for a bit later - the ugly part to the upper right is what went right over the top of us.