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Doug Miller Doug Miller is offline
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Default Flash Flood ended the Concert

In article , "Mike Dobony" wrote:

wrote in message
.. .
Last weekend I went to an outdoor concert / festival. There was a
rock band playing inside a metal pole barn-like building. I could see
fierce lightning out in the distance, and then someone announced over
the bands microphones that there was a severe storm approaching and
everyone should exit the large tents, and either leave or come into
that tin building. Most people came into the building and the band
went back to playing music. All of a sudden I could see the trees
outside bending way over and the lightning was close, and even the
thunder could be heard over the loud amplifiers. Seconds later the
rain came down in buckets and the water coming off that roof was like
a waterfall, and someone closed all the sliding doors.

Now I still dont know where all the water came from, since that
building was on the high end of the grounds, but suddenly there was a
river coming thru the building. It only took a minute for the water
to reach a depth of about 18 inches. It pushed the doors inward on
the upper end of the building and outward on the lower end as all the
water rushed by carrying all the trash from the ground with it. A few
of the wooden picnic tables were afloat, but people began to stand on
them and secure them. The band was on a 5 foot tall stage, so they
were dry except gusts of rain that managed to blow in the cracks by
the doors. The younger audience just played and danced in the water
and were splashing each other, while us older folks just stood on
tables or decided our shoes were dirty and needed a washing. No one
seemed too upset, of course many were drinking. I had not been
drinking and was cautious and watched the storm thru the cracks next
to the door. I also noticed that there were people lifting mic cables
and other wires that were hanging off the stage. That's when I
decided I should go make sure they were plugged into GFI outlets.
They were, so I figured everyone was safe. Thats when some official
came onto the stage and told the band they were going to cut the power
to the sound system. I also saw someone telling the food vendors to
unplug everything.

While I so understand the reasoning behind this, and was more worried
about the food vendors who were not on GFI outlets, and had extension
cords all over the place to their cash registers, coolers, etc. But I
really dont think the band needed to be stopped as long as they were
plugged into GFI's. After all, that's the purpose of having them.


The equipment was protected, but not necessarily what was plugged into the
euipment. A few years ago a pastor was killed during a baptism when he
grabbed the mic while in the baptismal. It is still a hazzard even if
plugged into a GFI.


You want to explain that?

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.