The Hannen Family

 Okay.. so Louie and I had plans to actually go out Tuesday night without any of the three kids. I don’t think that has happened since last December!   I bought tickets to a Styx/Foreigner/Def Leppard concert and we were SOOO excited to go.

It was lawn seating, but that is what we’ve always done at this pavilion. We knew scattered “showers” were likely so we brought a tarp to sit on/pull over us in case of rain. Well, we got there at 6:10 and at 6:15 it started to rain lightly. About ten minutes later you heard this LONNNNNNNNNNNG low rumble of thunder and the whole place literally went “ooooooooooooh…” and it was a little tense. Then, boom!, the sky dropped and it was coming down in sheets of water! I don’t think I have ever seen that much rain!!

Louie and I were struggling to hold the tarp down over us (we were sitting in two low beach chairs) because the wind suddenly whipped up and was bringing rain in from all directions. It sounded like a freight train was coming and I immediately had mental images of a tornado coming straight at us.  “Auntie Em!  Auntie Em!!”   Then the hail started. Yes, I said hail. It was coming down so hard that it was bouncing off the ground and hitting us from up under the tarp. I was yelling at Louie to pull the back down and he couldn’t heard me… from a whopping 12 inches away! That is how loud it was.  I have never been through something like that. It lasted about 5 minutes and then it was totally silent. I was hesitant to peek out from under our cover.  Then rain continued for a while, but all the people were now quietly walking around as if in shock.

There was mess everywhere… stuff had washed down the hill.  There was an entire untouched funnel cake laying in ruins next to our blanket.  Lol.. Hmm they must have bought it just before the storm hit and abandoned it while running for cover.  The back of my right shoulder was red from being beaten with hail. It was just ridiculous. They announced over some crummy PA that they would make a decision about the concert soon. Then, the sirens started. It was creepy. I heard at least three different emergency vehicles arrive. Our friends, Ben and Cynthia, were able to find us in the ruins of lawn seating.  They had still been in their vehicle when the hail hit. After about ten more minutes, during which Ben discovered the concession stands were without power, it was announced the concert had been cancelled. It was short and sweet.. basically canceled, will be redone, please leave NOW! People started to mill about, gathering up their stuff, and trying to wring things out since the rain had stopped. The place just emptied in one big mass. Everyone was calm… more like in shock I think, so it wasn’t a stampede or anything.  We passed tents that were in shambles on our way out.  The metal poles were bent and the whole unit was laying about 50 ft down the street from where it had been earlier as we passed through it in a security check.

Came home and found this story on our local news…
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1728315/
Hmm at least that explains all the sirens. The whole thing was unreal and eerie.