Wanda English Burnett, Editor

Severe thunderstorms swept through the county Sunday evening halting activities at the Ripley County 4-H Fair not long after the official ribbon cutting took place.

The strong winds caused damage to some vendors’ tents and about six vehicles sustained damage, according to Deputy John Lord of the Ripley County Sheriff’s Office, who provided security for the event.

The official opening of the fair took place around 6:00 p.m. as Rob Vestal, president of the 4-H Corporation welcomed the crowd. Members of the 4-H Corporation Board cut the ribbon and the fair officially began. All of the members were recognized along with other fair officials. Of course there had been many activities throughout the day, including the horse and pony show. All the exhibits were on display.

The 2008 4-H King and Queen were named. Keith Menchhofer, son of Tom and Melissa Menchhofer of Holton, was the only candidate for king. Kendra Hartman, daughter of Marvin and Sue Hartman of Sunman, took the queen title with four other candidates - Brittney Luers, Vicky Woolum, Hannah Combs and Jessica Osborne, appearing on stage.

The parade of banners took place with the Northern Lights 4-H Club taking first place for their banner design. It had a ballot theme, red, white and blue with a big check saying, “Vote Yes for 4-H”. Second place went to the Faithful Workers club, third to Morris Shamrocks and fourth went to the Penntown Clover Helpers.

Miss Ripley County 2008, Jordan Clements, and her court were introduced. They had been named at a pageant held July 11 at the Batesville High School.

With only one category, Advanced Consumer Clothing, modeling on the free stage, the fashion revue was quickly moved to a private showing as clouds rolled in. Within minutes, the threat of a severe thunderstorm was a reality. Some people scrambled to get tents down and secure what they could. Others were quickly ushered to safe buildings throughout the fairgrounds.

Strong winds, estimated by Deputy Lord to be about 60mph, roared through the area making the racetrack at the grandstand area a cloud of dust.

One tent was lifted by the high winds and came to rest on two vehicles just east of the commercial building.

Several people had taken shelter in the commercial building and Denise Taylor of Sunman watched in horror as her vehicle took several smacks from the metal poles the tent had been secured by. What she didn’t know was that her friend, Paula Goodpaster, was still inside her vehicle parked beside Taylor’s. Both vehicles were damaged, but Goodpaster was not.

“I had just pulled in when the storm came up,” Goodpaster told the Osgood Journal. The winds were so fierce and things were flying through the air so she made the decision to sit tight. Then, the tent blew onto her vehicle. While she said it was scary, she was thankful no one was hurt. Both Taylor and Goodpaster were volunteering at the Prevent Child Abuse booth. Taylor is the coordinator for Prevent Child Abuse, and Goodpaster is the coordinator for the Ripley County Local Coordinating Council.
The short storm, that kept people in shelter for about an hour, called a halt to activities for the evening at the fairgrounds. A limb fell out of one tree damaging two vehicles, one belonging to Marilyn Reynolds of Milan, who had been volunteering in the Ripley County Homemakers Extension exhibit.
Deputy Lord explained that the decision to close the event was a joint effort by himself, Ripley County Emergency Assistant Director Dan Mulford, and Ripley County Fairgrounds Park Manager Julie Brancamp. It was close to 8:00 p.m. when people at the commercial building were told they could leave and the building would be locked for the evening.

Of course, the animals were sheltered in place, much as they would be if they were at home and officials assessed the damage.

Barry Lauber of Southeastern Indiana REMC was at the fair and was immediately on his phone in contact with the power company. They spent the rest of the evening restoring power to the many homes throughout the county and surrounding counties that lost electric due to the storm. On Monday morning there were still about 900 customers, mostly in surrounding counties, that were still without power. Additional crews were called in to assist with the outages.

WANDA ENGLISH BURNETT PHOTOS ABOVE : Just after the rain stopped, people were checking out the damage to vehicles that this tent had blown onto at the Ripley County Fairgrounds Park Sunday evening, July 20. BELOW: Denise Taylor, center, watched as the tent slammed into her vehicle. Also pictured with Taylor are Wayne and Mindy Gunter, who were sheltered in the commercial building and waiting for daughter Emily, who was participating in the fashion revue in the extension office at a private showing after the Showmobile had been closed down due to the storm.