May 23, 2021 - In the Middle of a Tornado

From the road – May 23, 2021

I'm in a tornado, I may have to dive under the table any minute. The alert went off on my phone. I am at the Blue Bell Lodge, Custer SD. Debris is hitting the building. I'm concerned my van might be turned over. I walked to the Lodge! The hail had stopped and the weather was better! I got to go ....

It is all past now! I do mean a tornado past over here. We are sitting here without power right now and a heavy rain. More hail is coming, pea size, like rice at a wedding. It was real bad, they brought people in here at the Lodge. The ground is covered in hail and in some places it looks like it snowed and the water is flowing all over the sidewalks, there is so much of it. My vehicle is 1/3 mile away so I’m going to sit at this bar and enjoy my drink in the dark.

Went outside and took pictures of the hail. A large Ponderosa pine is now in the parking lot. If that tree had been on the other side it would have sliced the building in half.

The tree hit the parking lot right where the car parked there had previously left.

The tornado, did minor damage to the area and knocked out power. So couldn’t charge the phone, or use the shower house. Storm knocked out 3 trees besides the tree in the parking lot, another tree was blocking the main park road and the 3rd tree was blocking the entrance to the camp ground. It also damaged some horse corrals. Fortunately it missed a worker’s cabin by a few feet and the stables by not much more.

The crew that worked the stables were the ones actually clearing the trees from road. After taking pictures, I put the camera up and helped to move the 3rd tree. After all this rain, my biggest problem is all my shoes are all wet. Woke up this morning to sunlight, only the second time in 9 days that I have seen it.

One more thing about the tornado, the first warning of it was on my phone! It was the first of 3 warnings that we would receive that night in the diner. The message said, this is the national weather service, there is a tornado in your area now. I thought it was strange that it didn’t clarify what county or any other details. It just said seek shelter immediately. The bartender looked at me and said, is that a tornado watch? I replied, no, it was a tornado warning, do you have a basement? She said, no. I started getting under the table and pointed to a closet to her and said I would seek shelter if I were you and then I popped under the table, popped back up and reached for my tea, then back under the table with the tea. The rest you know, all ended well.