The Night The Lights Went Out In Culver
You've read the article in Wedding Essentials, seen the story on Michiana Weddings, I'm here to give you the inside scoop on what really happened the night an F3 tornado ripped through my client's event site, in mid-production - and how we pulled off putting it all back together in little over 48 hours.
My rental company, Burns Rentals, and I began production on our August 18, 2007 wedding on the Monday (Aug. 13) before the event. It was to take place in a 90 x 150' tent, on the shore of Lake Maxinkuckee, on the campus of Culver Military Academy, in Culver, IN. Every day leading up to the wedding had been carefully mapped out in pre-production meetings. It would take us every bit of time we had that week to put together what promised, to be an absolutely amazing event. By Wednesday evening, we were just a little ahead of our production for that day. The tents (cocktail, dining and catering) were up, liners installed, tables and chivari chairs were almost set and the 8' hand strung crystal chandeliers were being finished up. We felt happy and optimistic that we might even have a little bit of extra time to make final adustments and tweak details before the event was to begin.
We left the site around 7 pm that evening, leaving two gentlemen from the rental company to finish hand stringing the chandeliers. Later, at home that evening, while watching television, the local newschannel came on with news of high winds, and severe thunderstorms that were sweeping through our area. It started to get really scary when they were asking the viewers to take shelter due to tornado sightings.....and according to the doppler screen on TV, it was right where the event site was. I watched obsessively until around 11 pm, then made myself go to bed, trying to assure myself that surely, nothing would happen. Oh man how wrong I was.
Around 11:35 pm, an F3 tornado ripped across Lake Maxinkuckee, and you guessed it, right through the event site. Unbelievable! The rental guys left to finish the chandeliers were still there when the storm approached - they quickly got down off of the lift and ran for their vehicles. They called the rental company to let them know what was happening, and took off for some type of shelter. By 2:00 am, Burns had assembled a crew and were heading down to the site, with four box trucks and a bobcat, which had to be unloaded twice to move trees out of the roadway so they could continue to try and get to Culver. Once at the event site, using the headlights from their vehicles, we got our first look of what Mother Nature had left us. The site was in a complete shambles - the main dining tent (which is made to withstand 70 mph winds) had been lifted and moved 40-50' to the shore of the lake. The cocktail tent was upsidedown, on top of the dining tent, the metal structure of the chandeliers were sticking through the tent, the tent poles twisted like pipecleaners. The beautiful tent liners were ripped, muddy and twisted amongst bits of chivari chairs and broken tables. The crystal pieces from the chandeliers were strewn across the entire site, some pieces broken and now dangerously sharp. And the debris!! Trees, branches, leaves, mud, it looked like a war zone. I'm telling you it was a surreal moment, we all just stood there trying to take in what had happened.
We then looked at each other and said, now what???!!! A plan was devised, that I now like to call 'event disaster triage'. We began to pull the tents from the lake to access if they were destroyed, usable but in need of repair, or fine w/little damage. And so it went, with everything, chairs, tables, lighting, etc. Once everything was accessed, we then made lists of what inventory we needed to supplement what was destroyed and what needed to be repaired. The hitch here is that this is a wedding, in August, and by this point, rental items are going to be out from other rental companies, on other events.
More to come.....
Michiana Weddings also has the story of recreating everything after the tornado here.
My rental company, Burns Rentals, and I began production on our August 18, 2007 wedding on the Monday (Aug. 13) before the event. It was to take place in a 90 x 150' tent, on the shore of Lake Maxinkuckee, on the campus of Culver Military Academy, in Culver, IN. Every day leading up to the wedding had been carefully mapped out in pre-production meetings. It would take us every bit of time we had that week to put together what promised, to be an absolutely amazing event. By Wednesday evening, we were just a little ahead of our production for that day. The tents (cocktail, dining and catering) were up, liners installed, tables and chivari chairs were almost set and the 8' hand strung crystal chandeliers were being finished up. We felt happy and optimistic that we might even have a little bit of extra time to make final adustments and tweak details before the event was to begin.
We left the site around 7 pm that evening, leaving two gentlemen from the rental company to finish hand stringing the chandeliers. Later, at home that evening, while watching television, the local newschannel came on with news of high winds, and severe thunderstorms that were sweeping through our area. It started to get really scary when they were asking the viewers to take shelter due to tornado sightings.....and according to the doppler screen on TV, it was right where the event site was. I watched obsessively until around 11 pm, then made myself go to bed, trying to assure myself that surely, nothing would happen. Oh man how wrong I was.
Around 11:35 pm, an F3 tornado ripped across Lake Maxinkuckee, and you guessed it, right through the event site. Unbelievable! The rental guys left to finish the chandeliers were still there when the storm approached - they quickly got down off of the lift and ran for their vehicles. They called the rental company to let them know what was happening, and took off for some type of shelter. By 2:00 am, Burns had assembled a crew and were heading down to the site, with four box trucks and a bobcat, which had to be unloaded twice to move trees out of the roadway so they could continue to try and get to Culver. Once at the event site, using the headlights from their vehicles, we got our first look of what Mother Nature had left us. The site was in a complete shambles - the main dining tent (which is made to withstand 70 mph winds) had been lifted and moved 40-50' to the shore of the lake. The cocktail tent was upsidedown, on top of the dining tent, the metal structure of the chandeliers were sticking through the tent, the tent poles twisted like pipecleaners. The beautiful tent liners were ripped, muddy and twisted amongst bits of chivari chairs and broken tables. The crystal pieces from the chandeliers were strewn across the entire site, some pieces broken and now dangerously sharp. And the debris!! Trees, branches, leaves, mud, it looked like a war zone. I'm telling you it was a surreal moment, we all just stood there trying to take in what had happened.
We then looked at each other and said, now what???!!! A plan was devised, that I now like to call 'event disaster triage'. We began to pull the tents from the lake to access if they were destroyed, usable but in need of repair, or fine w/little damage. And so it went, with everything, chairs, tables, lighting, etc. Once everything was accessed, we then made lists of what inventory we needed to supplement what was destroyed and what needed to be repaired. The hitch here is that this is a wedding, in August, and by this point, rental items are going to be out from other rental companies, on other events.
More to come.....
Michiana Weddings also has the story of recreating everything after the tornado here.
Labels: disaster, tent wedding, tornado
posted by Cynthia Basker | 8:00 PM
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