so scary I didn't have time to be scared

Today we went to see P play in the community band.  Things were going well.  We were on time.  We had a stroller and umbrella just in case.

There was a menacing cloud that seemed to be passing over.  Then suddenly the heavens opened and it was pelting rain hard.  We took cover under an aluminum tent as the rain started to come at us sideways.  The children and I were drenched and huddling together in our soaked blanket.  M and lP were screaming and whimpering "I want to go home!"  G took off his hearing aid (that is not waterproof) and gave it to me as if I had any dry place to put it. 

It just got worse and worse.  The wind knocked down all the folding pavilions.  It even threw around the metal folding chairs.  P was with the band under the aluminum pavilion 30 feet from us.  The band had taken shelter there with their instruments, stands, and music.  It wasn't anchored down, so people were physically holding it down.  And it was right next to the lake!

Various strangers were trying to shield us.  One with a broken umbrella tried to shield my children as well as her own.  Seemingly out of nowhere a lady came up to me and said there was room in the bathroom for the children.  So she scooped up lP and we left our safe place to try and go into the brick and mortar structure. 

As we were going out into the rain, P came to tell us he was going to get the car.  I said that someone had taken lP and I was going to go with her.  So we sidled up to the overflowing restrooms and people tried to get us in.  B was shivering and strangers gave me towels to wrap his head in. Kind people gave us their spots in the bathroom.  As we got in I saw ginormous cages with cats that had been brought for adoption on this ill fated day.

It was intense.   People would come by occasionally looking for their family members.  Eventually P came for us and got us to the car.  Then he made trips to retrieve our blown over stroller, the tuba, stand, and back-bench.

I got B warmed up.  I gave the kids each a whole pack of fruit snacks.  P came and we left as the clouds moved on.