No Race for Marcus: Tornado Instead!

We were at Colonial Downs last night for Marcus first race, he was in race 5.  As they were saddling the horses for the 4th race, I noticed how dark the sky looked to the west and I started to hear thunder.  I immediately started to worry, because I knew that they would delay races and even possibly cancel them, due to storms, but I hoped maybe they could get one more race in, before it hit, depending on how fast the storm was moving.

After the 4th race was run, they started to bring the horses over from the barn, the long walk around the clubhouse turn, but the sky was getting darker and darker and the thunder louder and louder and then my husband noticed that about half the people bringing horses over had turned around and were heading back to the barns.   Just then a track employee came over to us and told us we needed to go inside, because there was a tornado warning and a severe storm on it's way.

My husband pushed our 2 daughters in the stroller, we have a sit and stand, which provides a seat for an older child, along with the spot for the younger.  It made things so much easier.  I told Dextra, my Seeing Eye Dog to follow him and she kept me super close as we made our way back into the grandstand.

At first we stood about 40 to 50 feet from the doors.  My husband noticed that some of the horses were actually in the paddock, so he ran out quickly to see if our Marcus was one of them.   While he was out there, Dave Rodmon, the track announcer, made an announcement that a tornado had been spotted in the area and they were asking everyone to seek shelter on the first floor and well away from windows and doors.

My husband quickly returned, reported that Marcus was not one of the horses in the paddock, thank goodness, and that some people were pointing to something in the sky, so he ran back to us.   We moved our location to near the bathrooms, which put us well away from any windows or doors.   Despite this, we could easily hear the wind, rain, and thunder.   This had to be one of the most intense storms I have ever been in.

I pulled out my cell phone, as my Mom doesn't live too far from Colonial Downs, about a half hour, and she had the news on and indeed, a tornado had been spotted near us.

I called the other partners that own different percentages in Marcus to let them know what was going on.   At this time, I did not know if races would be cancelled or not, but told them it was a high possibility.

The storm raged on and on and the power went out at the track.  Emergency power kicked on and someone started to make announcements with a bull horn, but never came close enough to us for us to hear him.  My husband called out this fact, as loudly as he could, but did not get the guy's attention.

I was on the phone off and on with my Mom and a good friend of mine, who is one of the partners on Marcus. 

The announcement was finally made that the races were cancelled due to the severity of the storm.  So we waited a little longer and when there was a break in the storm, people started to head out to their cars and we did, as well.

I kept trying to reach our trainer, Diana McClure, but her cell wasn't working, so I figured a cell tower must have been damaged or something.

As we raced to our car, Dextra picked up a wonderful trot and seemed to sense the urgency of the situation.   As we crossed a road a car turned down it and started speeding towards us, but luckily slowed at the last second, but Dextra was on her toes and was watching it closely, making a curved line across the street to avoid it.   Then as we were on a long straight away of sidewalk, we all started to walk faster, again and then my husband had to stop quickly, due to someone infront of him and Dextra came to an immediate stop, keeping me from bumping into him.   There were no lights in the parking area, just some headlights and the amazing display of lightening to the south.

We got everyone and everything into the car and decided to go to the barn area to check on Diana and Marcus.  It wsa almost 9:45, an hour past when Marcus race was supposed to have run.   We arrived at the barn area, just in time to see them load Marcus onto the trailer, Gordon got out and I stayed in the car with the kids, and he was back in 2 minutes, so we all could get on the road.

We headed towards my Mom's house, which was on our way home, anyway.  Another bad storm was hitting her area, but by the time we got there, it had passed.   She had power and we went in for a few minutes for a pitstop and a nice cold soda.  Thanks Mom!

As we were there, they had on their NOAH weather radio and I listened as they mentioned a severe storm warning about to go over our farm.  It was about 10:30 and the storm was to hit our area at 10:35.

So, we feared what we might find when we got home, as we had left the horses out, due to extreme heat and the weather forcast had not called for all these storms.   When I had last checked, it was calling for only a 30% chance of isolated storms.   Well, we hit the jackpot of storms.

We drove the remaining hour home and pulled into the driveway around 11:45.   Took us a little longer, due to occasional heavy rain, stem on roads, and lots and lots of lightening.

As we unloaded the car, I told my husband it sounded like the thunder was getting closer.  So, while I got the kids into bed, he went to the computer to check on the weather to see if he should bring the horses into the barn.

Computer was not cooperating, so when I came into the den, I said I'd turn the TV on.  He doubted they'd be talking about the weather at midnight, but he was wrong, it was such a severe situation that they were talking about it non-stop.   So, he rushed out and brought our horses into the barn and checked them, all appeared fine.  Thank goodness.

That storm passed fairly quickly, but we got another one about 4:30 and another severe one around 7 AM.

My husband went out around 8:30 to let the horses out and survey any damage.   We do have a few trees down, but luckily not in pastures or on fences, just in our woods and beside the fence, so we got lucky.

Had an email from Diana this morning and they made it home safely.  Marcus is fine, along with the other horse that raced in the 4th race, that she had, who finished 4th.    She is going to spend part of her day taking water to neighbors with horses, who are without power.  She is a great woman!

So, Marcus's first race will have to wait for another day.