Lawrence.com

Posted by Chris Tackett June 6, 2008 at 9:33 a.m.

Wakarusa, Friday post-storm post

FRIDAY MORNING: POST-STORMWow. Soooo, that was interesting.For context, I've lived in Lawrence for more than half of my life and lived through several tornadoes and some serious storms and I can easily say that was the wildest storm I've ever experienced. Granted, it might not have been so if I was safe in a house, but that was far from the case. I, like about 5,000+ other fun-loving/dumb folks was sitting out in an open field with nothing but shaky tents and our vehicles for shelter.I, like a lot of people, spent the hours from about 8:30 on watching the storm roll in from the west and the lightning show that accompanied it.Music had been called off around 8pm, so everyone had begun making their way back to their campsites to decide what to do. Some immediately packed up and jumped in their cars to leave the site, while others, perhaps courageous with liquid courage stood Captain Dan style, shirtless and cussing the clouds that were quickly closing in on them.We came to party! Where's my lightshow!?!"And we all certainly got that. There was a surreal "is this really happening" vibe that I picked up on as the storm approached. At times I looking around at the size of the distant storm clouds, intensity of the lighting and eerie-ness of the 'pre-storm' calm, that I couldn't believe this many people were out here about to go through this.People can't say they weren't warned it was coming, of course. The predictions of severe weather came in early, days ago, but a general sentiment of the people camping around us was that they'd paid for their tickets and were going to have a show of some kind - storm or music.I'm currently sitting at the HyVee Wi-Fi tent located at their General Store in the Campsite. Their Wi-Fi is free and they are selling a lot of stuff to The Survivors that have been milling around the campsites since about 8am. Folks are retying their tents, cleaning up the messes, and just regrouping. Some I saw moving their tents to better locations, hanging out clothes to dry and there are lots of whooping and hollering and high-fives all around.Trying to upload some of the videos I shot of the lighting.More to come...