PRE
They came around and told us a bad storm was coming and that we had about 10 minutes to get our tents and things secure before it hit.
4:19 PM
It was the scariest storm I've ever been through. I was very lucky my tent and work survived undamaged - 40 of the 220 booths at the show were either destroyed or damaged, people were injured and taken to the hospital. They say it was a microburst...I watched in horror (through a zippered opening as I held onto my tent with all my might) to see tents, tables, art and debris flying through the air tossed and tumbling out of control from the west on Chuch Street and then turning south onto Sherman wiping them out as well (I was 3 booths in on the north east side of Sherman).
Devastation
Picture 18
Several people I know lost their entire set ups and some their artwork as well.
We all tried to pitch in and help our friends clean up and find their things...my friend Kate Strong of
lost her tent but we were able to salvage much of her display and work.
Kate
5:02 PM
A short hour later the skies opened up again and this time the hail came! Eva & I had just finished helping Kate retrieve her display and hats and things and she had just covered them up with a tarp when round 2 started...this was like a picnic compared to the microburst! Kate bravely came back on Sunday with an old tent she said "I
decided it would be better to just get back on the horse" ...she is one tough chick!
Rich came up and rescued me, while walking to the car to come home, we came by Nancy & Andy of Circa Ceramics and Eva (again helping out her friends) packing up...they lost one shelf of product but other than that made it through safely...we all counted ourselves very lucky!
So I couldn't figure out why my arms were so sore yesterday...then I realized I had been hanging onto the steel pole of my awning for dear life for ? 17 minutes on Saturday...As I was writing this I received a phone call from Bob Seidenberg at the Evanston Review Newspaper who asked my for my take on the storm. And here's a link to a video newscast about the storm damage at the Evanston Fountain Square Art Festival.