How our Club survived a visit from
Hurricane IKE
Hurricane IKE
Having a good Hurricane survival plan helps. But mother
nature cannot be predicted. Ike slammed into the Club with
100 to 120 mile per hour winds. The Barnmaster barns were
incredible and held up to the force. They proved their moneys
worth over and over. However the Olde Oak trees around the
Club did not.
Those gorgeous old trees that we love for their shade in the
summer heat were no match for Ike. Any tree that was pretty
and had enough leaves to catch the wind found itself severally
damaged. Entire tree trunks were snapped in half with their
tops hanging upside down. This made for some amusing
photos of horses standing below upside down trees.
All of our barns sustained hits from trees. Worst were the Big
Barn and our covered arena which had massive holes from
trees coming down through the roofs. The covered arena had a
domino of 3 trees right into the side of it! All of the pastures but
3 out of 28 had breaches to the fencing which made it
impossible to use them. Many access roads and walkways
were impassible.
So at first cite, and later as we tried to walk the property, it was
a very depressing site. Our first thought was to make sure that
all of the horses were safe. And then we had to decide if the
facility was safe. Parts of it were not. And probably none of it
was safe for children.
About 20 boarder volunteers pitched in from 9-5 for 7 days in a
row. We usually had 3 teams hauling out debris using flatbeds
and trucks. Our pile along N Eldridge was impressive!! It was
about 300 feet long x 50 feet wide by 20 feet high. The County
had to bring in cranes, bulldozers, semis, and dump trucks to
remove it all !!!!
We had 2 trapped horses in the Big barn that had to be chain
sawed out of their stalls. Above their heads were huge limbs of
a beautiful tree that lay snapped in half and on top of the roof. If
the rafters would not have held up, we would have probably lost
6 horses in that block, because this tree was so big it would
have taken all the stalls under it out. Thank God for quality
barns!
The covered arena also held the weight of the 3 trees that had
crashed into its side. Unfortunately the broken gutters were
pointing directly into the arena and so as it rained the arena
flooded itself. We were horrified as much of the big equipment,
that was parked under there for protection, was inaccessible.
We had to wait weeks in order to get the machines out of the 3
feet of mud. We were also gravely concerned about destroying
the base under the footing as it is so expensive to redo. So we
waited.
As the arena dried it turned hard as rock - into cement....more
work....
So, many of us cried to see our lovely Club destroyed so badly.
But we managed to keep all of the horses fed and happy. We
had food, and hay in each barn, and generators to provide
water. We survived a long 2 weeks waiting for power.
Our guys managed to keep horses clean, fed and also fix our
Club. It was hard because some did not show up after their
initial visit to the Club. Maybe they thought it was too much
work. Some had families of their own to take care of. Some
thought we would just shut the barn down.
MORE PHOTOS N STORY TO COME 4-14-09
nature cannot be predicted. Ike slammed into the Club with
100 to 120 mile per hour winds. The Barnmaster barns were
incredible and held up to the force. They proved their moneys
worth over and over. However the Olde Oak trees around the
Club did not.
Those gorgeous old trees that we love for their shade in the
summer heat were no match for Ike. Any tree that was pretty
and had enough leaves to catch the wind found itself severally
damaged. Entire tree trunks were snapped in half with their
tops hanging upside down. This made for some amusing
photos of horses standing below upside down trees.
All of our barns sustained hits from trees. Worst were the Big
Barn and our covered arena which had massive holes from
trees coming down through the roofs. The covered arena had a
domino of 3 trees right into the side of it! All of the pastures but
3 out of 28 had breaches to the fencing which made it
impossible to use them. Many access roads and walkways
were impassible.
So at first cite, and later as we tried to walk the property, it was
a very depressing site. Our first thought was to make sure that
all of the horses were safe. And then we had to decide if the
facility was safe. Parts of it were not. And probably none of it
was safe for children.
About 20 boarder volunteers pitched in from 9-5 for 7 days in a
row. We usually had 3 teams hauling out debris using flatbeds
and trucks. Our pile along N Eldridge was impressive!! It was
about 300 feet long x 50 feet wide by 20 feet high. The County
had to bring in cranes, bulldozers, semis, and dump trucks to
remove it all !!!!
We had 2 trapped horses in the Big barn that had to be chain
sawed out of their stalls. Above their heads were huge limbs of
a beautiful tree that lay snapped in half and on top of the roof. If
the rafters would not have held up, we would have probably lost
6 horses in that block, because this tree was so big it would
have taken all the stalls under it out. Thank God for quality
barns!
The covered arena also held the weight of the 3 trees that had
crashed into its side. Unfortunately the broken gutters were
pointing directly into the arena and so as it rained the arena
flooded itself. We were horrified as much of the big equipment,
that was parked under there for protection, was inaccessible.
We had to wait weeks in order to get the machines out of the 3
feet of mud. We were also gravely concerned about destroying
the base under the footing as it is so expensive to redo. So we
waited.
As the arena dried it turned hard as rock - into cement....more
work....
So, many of us cried to see our lovely Club destroyed so badly.
But we managed to keep all of the horses fed and happy. We
had food, and hay in each barn, and generators to provide
water. We survived a long 2 weeks waiting for power.
Our guys managed to keep horses clean, fed and also fix our
Club. It was hard because some did not show up after their
initial visit to the Club. Maybe they thought it was too much
work. Some had families of their own to take care of. Some
thought we would just shut the barn down.
MORE PHOTOS N STORY TO COME 4-14-09
If it were not for the
help of many
volunteers the Club
would have suffered
for many months. We
had made the hard
decision to shut it
down and have our
boarders leave. It
was one of the worst
days of our lives. But
it was the right thing
to do for the animals
sake. But our
boarders were there
for us. They said no
way! And like a troop
of Army volunteers
they pitched in and
started cleaning and
fixing.
| A happy General gets some needed rest after being freed from his stall. |