Wind wrecks local couple’s camper

Posted 8/11/15

Falling trees cut camp trailers in half, said Susan Douglas, Bighorn National Forest public affairs specialist in Sheridan. Some trees were uprooted and others were broken with the severed half hanging in still-standing trees.

Clouds were rolling …

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Wind wrecks local couple’s camper

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It was a wedding anniversary the Powell couple will likely never forget.

That was around 4:30 p.m. Monday, July 27, when the wind storm ripped a swath through the Big Horn Mountains tumbling TJ and Bobbie Bell’s 26-foot Cougar travel trailer just off Little Big Horn Road east of Bald Mountain.

Falling trees cut camp trailers in half, said Susan Douglas, Bighorn National Forest public affairs specialist in Sheridan. Some trees were uprooted and others were broken with the severed half hanging in still-standing trees.

Clouds were rolling in and they believed a thunderstorm was coming. So they decided to sit out the storm in the trailer, Bobbie said.

First hail hit. “Pretty instantly it was ping-pong (ball) size,” Bobbie said.

Then the wind.

TJ went to the door. She was just rising from the couch, Bobbie said. There was no warning. “We didn’t really feel the wind come up.”

Chris Jones, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service office in Riverton, estimated the wind was between 90-100 miles per hour.

Then the wind seized the trailer.

It rolled one and one-quarter times, TJ said.

“We landed 60 feet from where we started,” Bobbie said.

The trailer was slammed to the ground on the slide-out, he said.

A slide-out is a section of a trailer that can be pulled out when the trailer is parked.

TJ landed on the edge of the slide-out and Bobbie on the bottom of the slide-out, TJ said.

Once the trailer stopped turning they were reluctant to evacuate because they had no idea where the trailer had landed. They were afraid it would roll down a nearby hill, Bobbie said.

“Just behind us is a little canyon,” TJ said.

The were able to crawl out of an 18-inch space between the roof and the slide-out, TJ said.

“We’re very fortunate,” Bobbie said. They both suffered a couple broken ribs plus bruises and scratches.

The trailer didn’t fare so well.

Every side of the trailer was hit and the frame was twisted, he said.

Once they were outside the trailer, they noted the the passenger side mirror on their pickup truck was ripped off, Bobbie said. TJ re-entered the trailer and was able to find their phones and keys.

They decided to leave. Three trees were down on Little Big Horn Road, Bobbie said. They drove over two trees and broke the other to clear the area.

“We were coming off the mountain by 5 (p.m.),” TJ said. They were home by 7 p.m.

The U.S. Forest Service reported there were no injuries due to the wind storm.

Forest Service personnel were not present when the storm hit. By the time Forest Service personnel arrived on the scene, the Bells had left. “We were long gone,” TJ said.

It never occurred to them to notify the Forest Service, Bobbie said.

Arrowhead RV in Powell, prepared a damage estimate. “But they stopped when they exceeded the value of the trailer brand new,” TJ said.

When the insurance company saw photos of the trailer, they decided it was totalled, Bobbie said.

The wrecked trailer is now parked at their home.

Their standard poodles, Regi and Nala, suffered no physical injuries, but they were very clingy days after the storm. They called a veterinarian, who said the dogs were traumatized. “They’re much better now,” Bobbie said.

“The damage path was at least 0.4 miles wide and 3.6 miles in length,” according to the National Weather Service.

If they had just been one-quarter mile further west, they would never have been touched, Bobbie said.

Their 25th (silver) wedding anniversary was Tuesday, July 28. “That was our silver lining that we were safe,” Bobbie said.

The trailer and the items it contained were not of great importance. “It was just stuff,” Bobbie said. “It was just a freak accident.”

“God definitely took care of us,” TJ said.

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