Quite an afternoon at our production of Always Patsy Cline at Historic Jordan Springs. As everyone already knows we've been suffering from extreme heat of late, and of course that means there is the potential for violent summer storms. They were called for today and we got one. Well, we got a doozy. About 3 songs into the show, the power went out in the area where the venue is located, and of course we all rushed into the theatre to make sure everyone was OK. They were. The show had come to a stop as all of the electronics were off, musical instruments, lights, sound, etc... But as we started to assess the situation it was apparent a major storm was coming through. Our stage manager who was in communication with our backstage dressing area told me they needed help and I took off in that direction.
Well, to tell the truth, the backstage area is a small tent on the back porch of the building. It's a large porch that wraps around the historic structure. As I rounded the corner the wind caught me, and blew back a step or two. I saw the actress playing Patsy Cline holding onto our costume intern holding onto the Exec Director of the facility with all three of them trying to hang onto the costume rack as it had blown over. The tent was blown apart. At the same instant I saw trees being snapped one by one coming down the hill towards us. If was as if some invisible giant was knocking them over one by one as it made its way towards the building. I screamed "get inside" at the top of my lungs and everyone did. The trees continued to fall as the microburst or whatever it was moved on through. The rain was intense for awhile and then let up just as quickly as it had arrived.
Of course without power we had to end the show for the day and we offered all who were there to come back next weekend. Everyone was "greatly relieved" that all were OK, but the folks out on that porch were quite shaken. The pictures at this Flickr Feed are from the aftermath and you can see some of the tree damage. I understand from a friend that there was considerable damage like this north and east of us as well.
It's been quite a weather year for us, what with two extreme snowfalls this past winter, extreme heat, and now this wind storm or whatever it was.
Oh, and Patsy's scarf blew off to who knows where from the rack it was hanging on. I guess we'll make another one.
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