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The sultry
July afternoon in Northern New Jersey left us at the camp table yearning
for the occasional cool breeze that flowed in from the north. It was
summer, no doubt. My one weekend off this year and it had seemed that I
picked the wrong one. Little did I know.
My fiancée
and her 3 children had been troopers. They knew I had promised them a
vacation even though it was all I could afford this year. I figured
there was swimming, games for the kids and just some plain old
"down-time" for my other half.
Our 3
other friends were atop the nearby hill gazing at the strange cloud
formations in the distance. Just happy to be in the great outdoors.
About 4
o'clock that afternoon, a skirmish stirred at the general store perched
on the hillside around 100 yards away or so. Several young men ran
towards the campsites with whistles blaring in hand. "Why did they
have whistles?", I thought. Was this some sort of raid? Was this
part of the entertainment?
As the
campground attendants scampered into our site they told us a storm
with high winds was on its way and that we should put away anything that
might get loose. We somewhat quickly packed any loose items and started
to pile them into our tents or the car as warned.
After
grabbing the last item off of the camp table, we heard what sounded
like a steam train coming up the mountainside. Our 3 friends on top of
the hill ran down yelling "Tornado!....Tornado!" With nowhere
to run and with the car now full of camp items loosely piled on the car
seats. We jumped into the tent and held on for our lives.
The kids
were screaming in terror as the tent folded in on itself from the vacuum
of the tornado as it neared ever closer. The tent doorway was still
unzipped...no time for that....the kids could see the terror
approaching....I was beside myself. There wasn't anything I could say or
do to calm the kids down. I was terrified as were the kids and my fiancée.
The wind
was so strong that it pulled up on the rain-fly and straightened out one
of the little 's' hooks that secured it to the tent. I reached outside
and held on as best I could as my 3 friends now arrived at the tent site
to help me secure.
The
tornado passed within 50 yards of my tent. The worst tornado seen in the
area in years. Trees were twisted off of their trunks and thrown like
toothpicks.
When it
was over, the tent laid their like a limp dishrag. And as I pushed up
the tent and peered out of the door, we all saw the devastation. An RV
pushed aside by a tree, 6 feet thick, that had harpooned it
like a whale. The once clean field was now a plethora of garbage and
debris from the wind.
I still go
camping because I know God was with us that day but my fiancée and the
kids don't want to go camping with me anymore. (I'll miss
them!)
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