Hailstorm causes ‘pandemonium’ at Culver track meet

Carson Tillinghast, a sixth-grader at Cascade Middle School, still has the marks from a hailstorm at his track meet in Culver on Tuesday afternoon. Carson’s grandfather, Ed Tillinghast, described the day as 81 degrees and “perfect” — until a giant black cloud started rolling in.

All of a sudden, lighting struck and intense hail started pouring down, he recalled Wednesday. The kids first hid under metal bleachers, but were redirected because of the lightning.

Carson said they ran, taking shelter wherever they could, and both he and his grandfather described it as “pandemonium.”

“Everything just closed in around us, and it started raining really hard,” Carson said. “And when the hail came, it was a complete whiteout — just couldn’t see anything. Kids were tripping and falling and crying.”

Ed added, “Kids thought it was funny for about 10 seconds, and then they panicked, and kids were falling down, slipping in the mud, and the mats were picked up by strong winds — heavy mats, thrown 100 yards.”

Carson was competing in shot put and discus when the thunderstorm rolled in. He said it lasted about 20 minutes from start to finish.

“Kids were under the bus,” Carson said. “I didn’t know what to do, so I decided to run to my car and I couldn’t see anything, just getting pelted with everything, and I slipped and fell at one point, which hurt, a lot.”

There are no plans to reschedule this track meet, but the track and field coach at Cascade Middle School said they’ll plan an inter-team meet to get some final marks before districts.