For those who might be interested in a more detailed play-by-play, here's what happened at Resto Camp on Friday, Mar. 3, 2023.
Most of the few who made it to Maple Springs told me they experienced bad weather getting there --no surprise-- but here's my tale.
As I approached the Interstate 24 'on ramp' at Paducah, Kentucky, I rolled down my car window a bit because I thought I heard an ambulace siren that strangely sounded unlike any Chicago-area ambulance siren.
But it wasn't an ambulance--it was a city-wide tornado warning siren!
I got onto I-24 anyway, thinking I would 'out run' the dark grey clouds in my rear view mirror.
I was wrong.
Heavy rain overtook me like I'd never experienced it before. Yes, my wipers were on 'high' the entire time, but it nearly didn't matter. Yes, there were cars parked beneath the highway overpasses with their flashers turned on.
It wasn't just rainy, but it also was windy like I'd never experienced. All you could do was slow down, be safe, and get there alive --was the mindset of everyone on the road, both car and semi-truck alike.
About 30-minutes into the harrowing drive East, there was a medium-sized SUV right in front of me (in the left lane), but a moderate distance ahead, for safety. As the vehicle began to slowly come even with and overtake a semi-truck in the right lane, I watched in horror as the rear of the SUV suddenly got blown to the left.
Keep in mind the torrential rain and the incredible wind. The SUV hydroplaned on the water-soaked road and seemed to purposely drive across the right lane, then across the paved shoulder, and then straight into the ditch --by then going backwards! (This is happening right in front of me!) As I passed the poor motorist, the car careened up the other side of the embankment, sideways, with muddy water and pieces of sod flying wildly into the air.
But the car did not flip over, and it seemed the driver lucked out. It was too treacherous for me to see much else in my mirrors--my heart was pounding and I was gripping my steering wheel for dear life.
A couple miles down the road was a highway weigh station, where I saw a State Trooper do a U-turn, presumably heading to assist the one-car spinout accident. Wow.
Although the rain seemed to let up a little when I exited the interstate and headed toward Nolin Dam, the wind was still blowing hard.
As I made my way down the 2-lane roads to reach Maple Springs (the 'back way'), there were no fewer than four times traffic came to a stop or serious slowdown due to giant trees that had fallen across the roadway.
One tree was about three feet in diameter, and there were about 10 vehicles stopped in both directions. Luckily, however, a guy who had a chainsaw in his pickup truck had just finished cutting through the massive log, and several other men rolled the logs to the shoulder.
I arrived at Maple to find that the electricity had gone out a couple hours prior. Ugh.
Brian pointed out how a section of a very tall, dead tree right in front of the Maple Springs barn sliding door had crashed down and damaged the eave of the barn roof.
As several of us stood around, there were massive blowing gusts that made so much noise in the teetering trees all around us, we had to keep a constant watch as twigs, leaves and sometimes small branches rained down on us (and parked cars).
At that point, due to the danger of more trees falling onto cars parked in the little gravel parking area, Brian recommended that the vehicle owners more their cars to the front lawn, well away from any trees that might fall over.
Suddenly, a massive 80-foot-tall tree between the rear of the Maple Springs barn and the 'bat house'? uprooted and crashed to the ground, narrowly missing the rear of the barn.
A little while later, Brian received a phone call that some Resto cavers were unable to reach Maple Springs due to fallen trees on the north Green River Ferry Road (toward the former 'Forks' convenience store).
Two vehicles containing Brian, John Kirk, Dave and Dee Boerma and Gary set out down the Maple Springs Loop road and turned left at the stop sign. But we stopped in our tracks because we coud immediately see massive fallen trees across the Green River Ferry Road in BOTH directions. We were 'trapped'!
A short time later, Rick Toomey informed Brian that a decision had been made to close Mammoth Cave (and the entire park) for the rest of Friday AND for all of Saturday, to leave roadways open for forestry workers to clear all the fallen timber.
We heard that the back roads near Cub Run had downed power lines and that all county roads were nearly impassable.
As a consequence, Resto Camp was canceled and we were asked to leave the Park property.
It took about three hours from when that decision was made for foresters to cut through trees across the Green River Ferry Road in at least a dozen different spots to create at least a single-lane escape route.
By 6:30pm, we were all cleared out of Maple and directed to the Green River Ferry, which was operating just for us and the foresters.
Brian remarked to me how we've had 'bad luck' at the March Resto Camp for the last three years, in one form or another.
Thanks everyone for understanding about the cancellation, but there's nothing we can do about such acts of nature.
See you in May!
