Mother Nature was an unexpected and unwelcome guest at a local family reunion held this past weekend.
Family members and friends who were attending the annual Trenholm reunion in Cape Spear over the New Brunswick Day weekend had their supper hour interrupted on Saturday by what is believed to have been a small tornado.
One of the organizers of the event Laura Estabrooks said Sunday that a violent thunder and lightning storm, which was accompanied by pelting rain and hailstones, also spawned the twister, which raged through the area causing havoc in the reunions campsite.
Some of our family here saw the twister coming and it went through the vent in the roof of the big tent; it just twirled the top of that big, old army tent. All of a sudden there was a whooshing sound and then the thing (the twister) just left, Estabrooks said, adding that the storm lasted about 15 minutes.
She explained that many of the 50-60 people, including adults and children gathered for the event, were in the tent preparing and eating supper when the wind quickly began to increase with the fast approach of the thunderstorm.
We were in the middle of this violent thunder and lightning storm and just before it started pounding rain I had been trying to sew a tear in the seam of the tent to keep it from getting any biggerbut then this twister came and just whipped it around. The two poles inside of the tent came down at an angle and my daughter was holding it up so people could get out when the roof fell in. Fortunately we hadnt put up the fourth side panel of the tent so it was easy for people to get out, Estabrooks said.
One man had the presence of mind to disconnect the power cord running into the tent, which may well have prevented further disaster from happening, she said.
We were standing in several inches of rain inside the tent and when it collapsed the cord was swinging around and hitting the ground, she said.
The pelting rain soon turned to hailstones and people ran for the cover of their travel trailers. The raging wind was blowing chairs, tables and other debris around the entire campsite and families became separated in their attempts to find shelter from the storm.
There was this big wall of hail coming toward us you couldnt see five feet in front of you. People were running and calling for their children and grandchildren; the children were crying. Some of the hailstones were as big as ice cubes and they were burning our skin as they hit us. Later we noticed a lot of dents in some of the trailers where the hailstones had bounced off of them, she explained.
Estabrooks noted one 10 year-old boy was outside the tent when the twister hit.
He said he could see this big twister coming at us from across the water so he dove under a picnic table, she said.
Fortunately there were only a few injuries as people got some bumps and bruises from the collapsing tent poles and the hailstones.
Estabrooks said 2007 marks the 20th anniversary of the Trenholm reunion, which saw people attend from all over the region and from as far away as Missouri.
We wanted to do something special to mark our 20th anniversary this year, but a twister wasnt what we had in mind, she noted.
Twister wreaks havoc on local family reunion
Twister wreaks havoc on local family reunion
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- Published on August 8th, 2007
- Published on March 5th, 2010
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Joan LeBlanc
Mother Nature was an unexpected and unwelcome guest at a local family reunion held this past weekend.
Family members and friends who were attending the annual Trenholm reunion in Cape Spear over the New Brunswick Day weekend had their supper hour interrupted on Saturday by what is believed to have been a small tornado.
One of the organizers of the event Laura Estabrooks said Sunday that a violent thunder and lightning storm, which was accompanied by pelting rain and hailstones, also spawned the twister, which raged through the area causing havoc in the reunions campsite.
Some of our family here saw the twister coming and it went through the vent in the roof of the big tent; it just twirled the top of that big, old army tent. All of a sudden there was a whooshing sound and then the thing (the twister) just left, Estabrooks said, adding that the storm lasted about 15 minutes.
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- Janet
- - March 8th, 2010 at 14:16:46
This was a terrific written account of a terrifying storm which I, together with about 40 or 50 others, endured -- in addition to those at the Trenholm Family picnic. I was part of a private outdoor party on a property adjoining the Trenholm site...a traditional Pig Roast/Potluck Dinner held every year at that time. When the storm struck we were all outside in a wooden frame structure with open walls and an open roof. The roof and one wall had been covered by a plastic tarp which, thankfully, had been well-secured! Inside the structure was a long wooden table covered with bowls and platters of picnic food. At the far end, on his own table, was the pig waiting to be carved! Most of us had made our way into the structure, in part to avoid the summer rainstorm, and in part to begin the sumptuous feast! In fact, many of us already had loaded plates in hand when the sky suddenly grew black, the wind picked up in the twinkling of an eye to a ferocious gale force, an onslaught of rain and hail assaulted us, and we were...trapped. At first it was just fun! We were eating and laughing and all grouped as close together as we could get, so that we were away from the open walls where the wind and rain was its worst. But there was a point when I suddenly realized that this was more than an ordinary bad summer storm. I became quite scared. One of the elderly guests was in a wheel chair and was not able to walk. It flashed through my mind: what will we do to help him if the tarp is ripped away? From that thought it was only a small leap of imagination to realize that if the tarp were swept away, all of us would be in a very dangerous, vulnerable position. I glanced around and could see that to reach the cars -- most of which were parked a long distance away, over mushy wet grass, up on the road -- would be impossible. And what about those festive strings of electric blue and green Christmas lights wound around the wooden structure's frame? Where were they plugged in? Were they a danger to us? Well, we survived. But the storm was one I will never forget. Apart from being suddenly caught in a horrendous storm on the top of New Hampshire's Mount Washington when I was backpacking, in a 100 mile/hour screaming wind and torrential rains, and having to make an extremely dangerous trek across the top ridge and down the steep, rocky Tuckerman Ravine on a trail that had turned into a fair-sized waterfall, I had never encountered anything like this. I had not realized it was definitely a twister, but I had my suspicions. Thanks for reporting this. Maybe now that the world's weather patterns are changing we need to be educated to become aware of the most sensible steps to follow if we encounter such a thing in the future. I am sure that none of us was sure of the best thing to do. Might the Sackville Tribune-Post include such an article in a future issue?
