Tornado at Cherrystone Campground, Cape Charles, Virginia?

[SawBuck]

Here is the link to the news clip. I've never considered the possibility of something like this happening while camping, especially in Virginia.

http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-...stone-20140724

Let's pray for these folks!

[Crabman]

I was out in the boat when the tornado warning came over the radio. Cherrystone and Cheriton is just 40 some miles south of here. They say over 1300 people were checked into the CG as of last night. 150 or so have been moved to a local shelter due to their units being damaged or destroyed. Local ambulances were overwhelmed and more had to come from Va. Beach and transport some of the injured to Sentara in Norfolk. Terrible situation.

[Bobx2]

Holy Crap! That's horrible. Not many places to take shelter when camping. Hopefully they had some warning before it hit.

[havnfun]

Holy crap is right! My heart goes out to all those fellow campers. God bless them all.
Jeff

[Crabman]

Originally Posted by Bobx2

Holy Crap! That's horrible. Not many places to take shelter when camping. Hopefully they had some warning before it hit.

Almost zero warning time. I just saw the updated press conference, a couple from New Jersey perished when a tree fell on their tent. Their 13 yr old child is in critical condition. Many of the displaced folks currently are at Northampton High School. A tractor trailer was also overturned on RT 13 during the storm.

[DieselX]

We are staying in Colorado now and have had 2 warnings. After the first one we have a bag packed and ready to go. It would be tough in Va though since they don't have many. We have a siren in our campground to alert us. Scary stuff.

Hope everything works out.

[SecretCoveDave]

Words fail.....

[nevercominhome]

Thoughts and prayers.

[Lifespalette]

A good reminder for all of us, that even in camping, we still have to stay informed and mindful of weather conditions. A good weather alert radio is a necessity in my mind along with the weather alert app on our smart phones. You don't really think of tornadoes in Virginia, but given the right conditions and tornadoes can happen just about anywhere.

Heck, it doesn't even have to be a tornado, I've been caught on the road with a 53' trailer behind me that severe thunderstorms and straight line micro burst had the trailer wagging from shoulder to shoulder like a dog's tail........trust me, when you look in the side mirror and see your trailer at a 15 degree angle on just 4 wheels.........I don't care how short of time it is.........you couldn't be ripped of that seat with a crowbar, due to the pucker power.

[Lurker]

Thoughts and prayers go out to every one involved.

In November one went through up the street from me 1100 houses destroyed, I can't imagine trying to take shelter in a camper. I still can't believe the outpouring of support we are still getting. It goes to show there is still a lot of good people in this world.

[SmokerBill]

It's sad that all those folks out having a good time had to endure that. And in Virginia? I'd more expect something like that to happen in Texas, Oklahoma or Kansas. I heard that the tornado struck just a few minutes after the official warning was broadcast.

[FlaCamper]

Our Prayers are with all of those campers!
The news said the warnings were issued at 08:20 & storm hit at 08:40. Not a lot of time to do anything even if you had a weather radio. Where do you go in a campground for a safe haven in a storm, the campground latrine? I know I'll be checking that out on our next campout!

[Jrmay25]

Thoughts and prayers to all those impacted. We had a 2011 Jayco 365BHS that was hit, along with about 25 other campers back in February 2012. By the grace of God, none of were at our campground when the tornado struck, but every camper in the entire campground was destroyed.
I definitely recommend everyone should have a weather radio when traveling because I can tell you from experience that even an EF2 tornado can roll a 13,000lb camper around like a rag doll.

[Lifespalette]

A solid structure would the first choice....preferably reinforced block walls. I know most of the new facilities in National and State CG's are supposed to be construction as storm shelters , meaning reinforced concrete block walls with #5's @ 48" o.c. with concrete filled cells and the roof super structure anchored at the same spacing. Unfortunately, that's is minimum standards and an F2 will most likely take it down. If it's an old structure (i.e. framed) I would probably look more for a deep ravine to take shelter in on the side of the approaching storm. Short of that, there is little a camper can do....but prayer and hope for the best.

[Phildakota]

Prayers sent my family and I were at the campground 1 year ago this week. When my wife told me about it I couldn't speak. so sad!!!!

[Canadian couple 1983]

Such a sad thing to happen.... Thoughts and prayers to those affected I know a few years ago there was a tornado that wiped out a few campgrounds 2 hrs north of where I live..... I've never really worried about tornados honestly but I do worry about major storms that have lots of lightning and hail....... Going to be looking at weather radios though also as we tend to do travels into tornado prone areas and plan to go down around Texas

[Tunce the traveler]

Wish I was there to help those people.

[Jack in Alaska]

We stayed in Cherrystone some years ago. A real nice place but only about 20 rigs there that night.

[Crabman]

Here is a pic of the tornado/waterspout as it came ashore.

[Camper_bob]

I saw this on the national news last night. DW and I were mortified. Our "tin can" doesn't stand a chance even in the mildest tornado. Luckily we don't have a lot of tornadoes down here either, but microbursts from extremely strong and sudden thunderstorms are quite common and often come with little to no warning.

One of our last cold fronts came thorough while I was towing the trailer back to storage, had sustained 40 mph cross-wind for part of the journey and I could see my trailer leaning over pretty far. It was not a comforting feeling to say the least, luckily I didn't have sway problems and I got out of it quick.