| This past summer my family went out to our remote lakeside campsite that we go to every year. It's 13 miles out on the lake which is undeveloped wilderness area. Our nearest neighbor is a mile away. No roads, no electric, very quiet and peaceful. After a few days we sometimes need to go into the main campground (again 13 miles by water) to get ice. So, on one of the excursions my husband took my teen daughter into camp to get ice and pick up her friends. We bring with us a marine radio on the boat and a handheld weather radio. Storms were predicted but had held off most of the day. They left early to try to miss them. They left my 9 year old daughter, three dogs, and me at the camp site.
Not long after they left the sky got really dark and we watched a storm come across the lake to our site! We had a huge canopy over our site but I stormproofed everything under the canopy anyway. Then we sat and watched the storm. It was very windy and the rain was coming down hard. The dogs came under the canopy with us. The storm was a strong one (as many of them are up there) but nothing we hadn't encountered before. So, as the storm moved off we started to clean up and get things back in order.
Not long after that we started to hear thunder again and saw another storm headed our way. This storm moved so quick that before we could prepare again the storm was on us! It picked up our tarp canopy (which was securely tied to trees) and started flipping it all around! Thunder and lightning were right on top of us! Within minutes it tore all the ties to our tarp and tossed it in the trees like paper! The campsite was flooding around us and I had no idea if our tent (which was down on the beach) was even still there! The tent up by the canopy was in a small pond by then! My daughter was scared so I told her to go under the picnic table! Here at least there was some coverage from the picnic table!
It was a long but thin picnic table make out of rough lumber so there wasn't a whole lot of room! One of the dogs was already under the table! Within minutes of my daughter going under the table another dog joined her. Meanwhile, it was pouring so hard you couldn't see through the rain! The wind was incredible and the thunder was deafening. I stood there next to the picnic table with my faithful baby (dog) next to me and tried to think of somewhere safer. There was an outhouse but it was up on a hill and had a metal vent sticking out the top. We could have all squeezed in there but I thought it was too much like hiding in a stinky lightning rod! So, I concluded the safest place was under the table! So, I climbed under the table with my daughter and my dog followed me!
Needless to say it was crowded under the table! We had some touchy moments like when my daughter was convinced that her dog died because it was so still from being terrified! The water poured over the edge of the table like a waterfall! At one point, my daughter asked me if I'll always remember this moment. I said yes, I think I will and we both laughed really hard! She said it's a good thing Daddy's not here because he wouldn't fit under the table with us!
Eventually the storm passed and we climbed out from under the table totally soaked to the bone! We left the area a mess and went down to see if the tent on the beach survived! Luckily it did and just as we changed into dry clothes (my kid wearing mine) we heard the outboard and knew my husband was on his way back!
The worst part of this whole thing was not long after we cleaned up we went to bed. My older daughter stayed with her friends in the main campground so we changed sleeping arrangements. So, in our one tent we had three people and three very wet sandy big dogs that insisted on climbing in our beds! Talk about an uncomfortable mess! | 
