 Media Credit: Zdano, Matthew
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 Media Credit: Zdano, Matthew
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 Media Credit: Zdano, Matthew
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 Media Credit: Zdano, Matthew
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 Media Credit: Zdano, Matthew
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"You see that barrel?" said Robert Blue, pointing to a large, black garbage bin. "That's my stuff." Shards of broken pottery threatened to overflow the barrel's rim, as Blue methodically emptied his ceramics of rainwater, checked them for cracks and either dumped them in the barrel or restored them to their proper case for storage. A potter from Woodstock, IL, Blue estimated that $3,000 worth of his hand-made ceramics was destroyed when a brief, severe windstorm struck Evanston's 29th Annual Fountain Square Arts Festival on Saturday afternoon.
The storm, which struck at about 4:15 p.m., brought winds of 60 to 75 mph, according to Jonathan Perman, Executive Director of the Evanston Chamber of Commerce, which ran the event. (Police and fire officials directed questions to Perman.) "(The storm) moved much more quickly than we ever imagined, and it just descended upon us," he said. There were seven minor injuries during the storm, including broken bones and lacerations, Perman said. The storm was classified as a microburst - a localized column of sinking air that has an effect similar to a tornado - and was followed by a period of rain and hail that lasted until about 5:30 p.m.
The severe weather uprooted tents and left shredded paintings, broken glass and jewelry, and shattered ceramics, strewn in the blocks that meet at the intersection of Church St. and Sherman Ave. About 30 to 40 tents were damaged "beyond salvageability," Perman said, and a large heap of tent poles was piled in the intersection by event staff for disposal.
The artists were given about 20 minutes warning of the storm's arrival, which left many scrambling to secure their wares. For some, however, 20 minutes was simply not enough time. Susan Windsor, a ceramics artist from Evanston, noted that the fragility of most ceramics makes it difficult to take them down quickly. When the storm hit, some of her wares were still on display. "People were trying to shop while we were holding the tent down," Windsor said. "This lady bought a peace mug…. She said, 'Pioneer women put up with much more.'" Windsor and her colleague Spark Mann, a DJ from Chicago, managed to salvage most of the art in the tent, but were frustrated by the late warning.
After the storm passed, city officials with bullhorns came around to announce that the weather was all clear. "I didn't hear no bullhorns before the weather started," Mann said. Still, Mann said he was satisfied by the post-storm response. "I'm just happy the police were here so there wasn't no looting," he said. "I wouldn't want this to be like another Katrina."
Perman said that the worst of the damage happened on Church between Benson and Sherman Avenues and on Sherman between Church and Davis Streets. The wind swept westward across Church Street and made its way about half a block north. Anastasia Mak, a painter from Rogers Park, was attempting to store her paintings in her tent outside Barnes and Noble on the southwest corner of the intersection of Church and Sherman when the storm hit.
"I was holding onto my paintings, and suddenly I was airborne, or maybe dragged into the tent next to me," she explained. The wind carried her 20 to 30 feet south until she landed on another tent, she said. After getting up, Mak said she started looking for her purse and wallet until something caught her eye across the street. When a large shelter for artists took to the air, Mak took cover in Barnes and Noble. "When I saw that canopy flying, I thought, 'It's time to run.'"
Mak showed off a half-dollar sized scrape on her left arm while clutching a large, impressionist painting of a castle with two large tears in the center of the canvas. She estimated that she lost 50 percent of her inventory.
Despite the violent nature of the storm and the extent of its destruction, many artists still said that the organizers had responded in a timely and appropriate manner.
"It's not the promoter's fault," Blue said. "They helped every way they could." Blue noted that his personal loss would have even been worse had it not been for the help of surrounding artists and festival-goers. "[They] helped me salvage whatever I could," he said. Ultimately, Blue said that the storm and the damage it caused was not anyone's fault.
"That's the risk you take.... Everybody has to put up with the weather," he said. "Some people have to put up with floods on the Mississippi, you know?"
The festival continued Sunday, although it was plagued by showers throughout the day, and not all of the artists returned. On the 800 block of Church St., a long stretch of blank parking spaces could be seen that recorded the absence of tents that had been wrecked the previous day and the vendors who had left along with them.
k-berlin@northwestern.edu
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