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Doc Mike
05-01-2011, 18:24
I Just returned today from a 4 day out in back in mt rogers area and thought some might enjoy reading this.

I originally planned a section hike from 603(fox creek) to damascus and had a shuttle arrainged from from damascus to 603 at 8 am on Thursday 4/28. I called ahead the previous day and confirmed my reservation and asked about 3 beds in the hostel. I was advised that the hostel was full but there were two hotels in glade springs just off I-81. When we arrived in Glade Springs will filled up with gas and picked up some candy for the trail at the marathon gas station. The clerk was very nervous saying there was a tornado on the ground heading straight for us. As we hear tornado watches/ warnings they are rare in the mountains compared to some places and I kinda blew it off. When checking in at the travelers inn I asked the clerk for one tornado proof room. He chuckled saying this is a cinder block building you have nothing to fear.

At 1:15 am my ipad and iphone both beeped like power had been interupted and came back on. Getting up to check I had an alert on my Ipad that the tornado warning was extended to 1:30 am. About that time it started to storm very hard and looking for a second out the window confirmed hail and debry flying in the air. Within seconds water was blowing in around the hotel door on both sides and the top. We immediately went to the bathroom in the tub. Thinking back I don't remember when I grabbed my head lamp but I had it during this time. My brotherin law was first in then My son then I'm the sheild over all. This gave me a partial veiw of the room. Within seconds the roof over our room exploded off. A piece of catwalk from a nearby bill board came through the roof busting the 3 inch water main which added a large flow to the rain already pounding the room. This probably occured over a total of a minute or two but felt much longer. The next 15 minutes were spent digging out of the room through lots of insulation, busted lumber, sheet metal, water pipes, and dry wall (now wet wall I suppose). Further time was spent finding clothes which were soaked and coated in fiber glass.
When we did make it out and to the car for refuge we noted that 3 windows were busted out including the back glass over our packs. Multiple dents, dings and a flat tire also noted (estimate of damage just to the car 10-12k) we started a room to room search of the hotel and found one lady who had banged her head but was doing fine. As a physician I headed over to the petros gas station and worked with the local fire and ambulace crews doing triage for the next several hours.

A side note here. I was very impressed with all the ambulance, fire and police crews in that area and surrounding areas that responded they were all first rate and very efficient with the limited resources that were available. If any of you see any one who responded pat them on the back they did a great job.

Needless to say we missed the 8 am shuttle and when tom called to ask where we were i was very suprised when a shattered soaked iphone actually rang. He was very understanding of our excuse.

So the question was what to do now. We had driven 5.5 hours to hike. So I drove the now beatup 2011 subaru forrester to a wytheville collision center, spent some time on the phone with the insurance company. Then renting a car and paying a local hotel owner just to let us take showers to get the insulation off. We drove the rental to 603 and did an out and back hike through grayson highlands and mt rogers.. Absolutely beautiful contry and as a thru hiker named tree beard said "plenty of nice soft rocks". So the hike lasted from 2 pm on Thursday to 10:30 am on Sunday.

Thanks Lone Wolf for the suggested area and thanks to the many day, section and thru hikers that we met we enjoyed visiting with each and every one of you.

I'll put some pictures in my gallery for those who want to see them.

Sierra Echo
05-01-2011, 18:37
I'm glad you guys are ok! That would indeed be a scary situation to go through!

Driver8
05-01-2011, 19:23
Wow! Glad you're OK, Doc. What an ordeal!

MkBibble
05-02-2011, 10:18
Incredible story. Thanks for sharing it.

Creek Dancer
05-02-2011, 11:11
Wow, glad that you guys are okay. I am sure the local emergency folks and those you attended were very grateful to you for helping out.

Doc Mike
05-02-2011, 12:01
Thanks all as I said earlier was a great hike also, absolutely beautiful scenery.