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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Storm hits a Michigan campgorund - and why you should always carry a weather radio!

I am still working on the other two posts from the weekend of Camp Grandma, 

but I wanted to post this instead this morning.

Oh my gosh, this is just awful!!   It is the very reason why you should have a weather radio on when camping, and LEAVE your camper and find solid shelter.... one big RV even got picked up and thrown into the lake....   seven pics on this link below:

Storm hits Michigan Campground - 1 killed

We carry a weather radio in our motorhome and we keep it ON.   The storms went off by us earlier on Saturday night but the storms were all south or north of us, nothing in our area.  But I listened closely each time the radio went off with a warning.   If it had been even within 25 miles of us, I would have grabbed the baby and headed to the brick shower building. 

According to the article, the campground manager saw it on the weather channel on tv but didn't have time to warn anyone.   I would think a weather radio would have been shooting out warnings long before that as the weather moved across the state.   That is ... IF someone had one on.   Don't get me wrong, I am not blaming the campground manager.  We are each responsible for our own safety.   I know -- coulda -- shoulda -- woulda!   But having a weather radio in your rig and turned ON and set to the three closest counties is the best method to be warned during tornado season like this....

Tragedy in Arkansas Campground - how can you protect yourself as campers

Oh such a tragedy!   At that campground in Arkansas....  so sad all those campers and tenters were asleep when the floodwaters hit.  Many of the tents were down on a low area on a bend in the river and could not even get back up the hill to where their cars were parked.....

Some of the rv lists were discussing it and here are a few thoughts...

- many campgrounds are located close to water in low lying areas, with only ONE road out, which could easily be blocked by floods, mud slides or forest fires, know your area and think ahead of escape routes

- realize gullies and arroyos and sand bars along riverbanks were MADE by rushing waters, and could very well be filled up again in no time, so don't camp in them, even if they are dry at the moment.

- get a weather radio that runs off batteries, not just for boondocking, but as you may have power outages even in a campground with hookups, no power means no reports via weather radio or television

- keep a printed off copy of the NOAA codes for all counties where you might be travelling through, to program your radio to, otherwise you may get NOAA reports for places 100 or more miles away...  that don't apply to your area

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/indexnw.htm

- most of all, make sure your weather radio is ON overnight!

We have 2 weather radios, one at home and one in the rig.  That way we never ever forget to take it along. The one in the rig is a rechargeable battery and the one at home has a battery backup.