by tinksdad » Fri Jun 26, 2009 11:05 am
I guess a lot depends on where you are/live geographically.
I grew up and lived most of my life on the eastern end of Lake Erie. Did a lot of fishing with my dad. There we would keep an eye on the horizon and if you saw something starting to develop, you "beat feet" back for shore. When we were camping, if the weather turned nasty, we would just usually lash things down a little snugger and ride it out. Over the years, camped in every thing from a pup tent with the Boy Scouts to a 23' Yellowstone with my "ex". Worst that ever happened was some dings from hail in the top of my aluminum truck bed topper that we camped out of for a few years.
Now that I call the Mid-South home. It's a different animal all together. I haven't developed any kind of hard and fast plan as of yet; but from reading this, I think I will. I know now to watch a different part of the sky. A couple of weeks ago, when the storm came through, I was almost three hours from home base (without the trailer). It was an interesting ride home to see if my house was still there or if it was in Oz when I got there. The whole time driving, I was watching funnel tails drop from the bottom of the clouds and suck right back up. Found out the next morning, an EF2 tornado touched down about a mile from the house. The really bad part about that is I am a very heavy sleeper. I have a tornado siren about 300 feet from the house and I don't hear it if it goes off while I am asleep. I do have several friends who will try to call me on my cell phone if the sirens start to wailing. The cell phone will wake me up; but not the sirens. Figure that!! My house is in kind of a little bowl, I think that helps protect me somewhat.
Not sure what I would do while out camping. So I guess I really DO need to develop a plan.
P.S. An afterthought to the storm mentioned above.... while all my neighbors were fumbling around with flashlights in the dark because of the power outage, I was nice and cozy with my Coleman lantern and stove for cooking. One of the benefits to being a camper!!