Racers,
Some of you have seen the Weather Channel broadcasts this morning. I have received calls about the broadcasts. A tornado (estimated at 100+ MPH) rolled through John's Island SC at 1am this morning and nailed our race site. Significant damage has occurred to our building and we lost about half of the trees. The second story CD tower, roof, walls and floor are all gone. The storage room below the 2nd floor CD tower had water damage. The race clocks and the PA amps were in the room. Will have to go through them carefully to get them back into operating condition. The PA system on the building and among the trees is severely damaged. The electrical system in the building has been damaged. The floating dock, steps and the walkway going down to the dock has been damaged. The driving stand appears to have no damage. We just had the primary chase boat repaired and was brought to the lake last evening. The engine was hit by a falling tree and the cowl is missing. We will need to get another one and test the boat. Don Ferrette will be posting some pictures later today of the damage we incurred.
However not all is lost. The CMB club has every intention of still hosting the race. There are repair crews on site now removing the fallen trees and will continue tor a few days. The club members will convene tomorrow morning and start the building repairs and continue with the site cleanup. We do not expect to have the time to get everything back into the original shape by race time and all of us will have to adapt to the situation we have been dealt. We are most grateful that no injuries occurred. Let's be flexible with us so we can still host the race. We will still be doing repairs until race time. Due to this, there will be NO open water on Tuesday, October 6th. It will commence on Wednesday, October 7th.