Why to carry a Weather Radio - another campground flooded - this time near my home

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After that devastating news on the campground being flooded in Arkansas, and another campground in Lower Michigan a few weeks ago in a storm, both that resulted in deaths.   I made a post about using a Weather Radio in my blog:

http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/2010/06/storm-hits-michigan-campgorund-and-why.html

Well, it happened again.  This time within 40 miles of my home.   The weather radios were going off like gangbusters all day on Wednesday, with warnings from over 100+ miles away as the storms moved in at 35 miles an hour. Flash flooding, torrential rains and even tornado warnings were blanketing our state.  All four major TV stations were blasting warnings all day long on Wednesday before the storm even hit.  Plenty of time to get hooked up and out, in my opinion.

There is a Walmart just up the road at the next exit to hole up in with your camper. Or anywhere around there is plenty of high ground within a short distance of the campground entrance.

But now the "woe is me" folks are being interviewed on the news complaining about the floods ruining their campers. And many are saying their insurance won't cover them.   At least nobody got hurt!

http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=12819589

http://www.wfrv.com/news/wisconsin/98595774.html

One couple even left their tent full of stuff and went to a local hotel, and came back the next day, upset their stuff was all gone and swept down the river???

I know this really sounds judgmental.   But......

This is not a remote or rustic area, it's located in a 25 miles stretch between two major metropolitan areas, Green Bay/DePere and Appleton/Fox Cities.  The campground has full hookups and is located about 10 miles from all the major television station tower - 6 stations.... so lack of tv broadcasts is not an excuse either.

We have camped here before and it has flooded other times too in the past.   I can think of two other times I have seen campers all flooded out there as it's within view of the highway.  It's in a hollow area along a creekbed, surrounded by high lands all around of farm fields and a highway along one side. All the runoff from the flat farmfields runs right down into the creek.  You can see where the higher waters ripped away the banks from other times it had high water.  It even used to be named Happy Hollow Campground.   

And here is my post from when we camped there 2 years ago:

http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/2009/10/apple-creek-campground-de-pere-wi-july.html

  

If we knew that kind of weather was coming, we would be packing up and out we would be in 15 minutes. Our home is located on a river, so we are attuned to watching the weather and notice the fluctuations in the river levels even at our home.  We have a 100 year flood plain down on our lower portion of our land, but our home is located up out of the flood plain.  Even then, we listen, we pay attention, and if we are in danger, we would move out to higher ground.  No question about it. 

So THAT is why we carry a weather radio....  

Now.. on a side note.... we were going to go visit Steve's mom this weekend with little Allegra, but now his mom is not up to par in her cancer battle, so we will schedule it for another time.  Instead we are going to stay home this weekend and NOT go camping.  WHAAAAAAH   Steve is off picking raspberries to make a batch of wine, and I am finishing up a batch of rag rugs.  Maybe I will do a post of my most recent rugs off the loom, which I should snap some photos of soon.


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