2009-05-26 - 8:04 a.m.
I got a call from Chad, the keyboard player from Great American Taxi on Saturday morning. He was wondering if I would join them for their performance on the Campground stage at Delfest. Of course I said yes, I had produced their record this past winter and I loved playing with them. I rolled up behind the stage about a half hour before the show and got my stuff up on stage. It started to drizzle when we started line checking. It had been threatening to rain on and off all day so I didn’t really think too much of it. In the space of about 30 seconds the drizzle turned to a steady rain. The crew started to pull out tarps and cover the equipment, pretty normal stuff. About a minute or so later the wind started to gust and even though the stage was covered, we started to get wet. A minor inconvenience for sure but nothing to worry about. Then the thunder came from off in the distance and the wind picked up threefold. Soon hail the size of Filberts came from the sky. Now things were getting just a little worrisome. Sometimes hail is the precursor of a much more severe storm not the least of which is a tornado. I still wasn’t overly concerned. It was maybe 5 minutes into this episode when I noticed it was bit difficult to breath. There seemed to be a lack of oxogen and my ears were popping. The pressure was dropping quickly. As I looked around I noticed the wind was shifting and it was now starting to blow straight at us and quickly what was once a minor inconvenience became a white knuckled ride through wind, hail, rain and flying debris. This was no joke and it got much worse very quickly. It came in waves. We were now in the worst of the first wave and we all were quickly soaked to the bone. The temperature dropped about 20 degrees and we were reduced to hanging on for the duration. I’m guessing the wind at that point was about 50 mph. Enough that tents were being rattled around and the ones that weren’t too secure were being blown over. This portion lasted another 5 minutes or so and then calmed down a bit. The rain slowed but the wind was still really blowing. I said to everyone on stage, “It’s not over. We’ll probably get some kind of back side." A minute later it came on again, this time a bit stronger. The system at first came from the west and then this second part shifted just a bit to the south. Now there was debris in the air and the storm became ferocious. 100 year old oaks were bending at the middle. The tarps started to lift off the gear like a parachute. I had to lean forward and let the weight of my body hold it down. Just then Chad yelled, “Tim...your fiddle!” It was getting drenched. I thought it was safe under a tarp but the tarp had blown away. I had one of the stage hands hold my stuff (too bad he had to stop shooting video, his footage of the early part of the storm is amazing!) and I ran and got it. There was no way to pick up the tarp to put it under, the wind would have ripped it off. I just held it between my body and my gear and hoped for the best. The storm abated a little and I actually thought the worst was over. I was so very wrong. Just then lightning flashed and thunder crashed very close ; it seemed like a couple of hundred yards away at best. Then the wind swung around and came from the east. There was so much water and hail that for periods of time I could not see the other side of the stage 30 feet away! The wind nearly doubled. Looking out on the field (when anything was actually visible) I could see tents, clothes, people... all manner of things just being blown along and away. At one point it seemed like a giant firehose had been turned on us except what was coming out of the hose included chunks of ice. What just 15 minutes ago was a bone dry drainage ditch behind the stage was now a raging torrent 3 feet wide and a foot deep. It was encroaching on the bands van and trailer and Chad ran and moved it into the road. I looked to the south and noticed the tops of the very tallest trees were being shorn off, their debris swirling and twirling in the air. Then, amazingly, it got much worse. The wind roared like a wounded animal and for a moment I thought we were done for. I started to think to myself, I’ve given up my life to protect my instrument and gear. How foolish! Well, it’s been a great life! Just then one of the stage hands jumped off the stage yelling, “It’s not safe, it’s not safe! Seek shelter!”, and off he went into the storm leaving his colleagues to take up the slack. This part of the intense storm went on for an incredible 10 - 15 minutes. It seemed like it would never end. Vince was yelling, “You look like Captain Ahab over there!”, and I kinda did. Eventually it calmed down and once again we thought we were out of the woods but nature had one last blast for us. This 4th wave was much like the 1st except that the rain seemed warmer. It was actually a relief. It felt like we were going to survive at last. 45 minutes and 5 inches of rain later it was over. We were all in shock. I packed my cords and buttoned up my rack as best I could and grabbed my fiddle and gear case and jumped off the front of the stage to head over and find a vehicle to get my gear off. Adding insult to injury, I slipped and fell in a puddle of mud, covering my pants with it. No damage done and off I went. I found my good friend Ellen in the exposition center and she volunteered her 4WD Jeep to extract my stuff. I’m still not completely sure if all my gear survived. I’m waiting for it to dry out before I turn it on. I was told by EMT personnel that as many as three F4 tornados had touched down on the other side of the ridge and we were caught in the various wind shears. The one question I have is, where was the production staff? Why weren’t we warned a dangerous storm was imminent? Someone should have been monitoring the doppler radar and all stages should have had been informed and told to button down and then seek shelter. It’s an absolute miracle no one was seriously injured or killed. If those tornados (if that’s what they were) had touched down a mile or so to the north, there would have been hundreds of casualties. That night when we encored with Railroad Earth at the late night show, I never meant it more when I sang.... Oh Mama, ain’t it good to be alive! It surely is... it surely is.
