Lake Guntersville Yacht Club after the storm April 13, 2009

This is a chronological chain of events of the weather phenomenon leading up to the disaster at Lake Guntersville Yacht Club on April 13, 2009. Both my wife Glenda and I were awake and in the front of our boat, looking out and into the storm, as all occurred.

Just after midnight on Monday, April 13, 2009...Easter Sunday...the weather began to get rough, with high winds and wave action in the marina area of LGYC. Both Glenda and I got up, and were concerned enough to try to gain as much information as possible on the weather. We kept searching all of the local TV stations but none had anything related to weather. We switched back to The Weather Channel, which only reported winds of 10-15 MPH, with gusts up to 30 MPH. We knew that we were already beyond those wind speeds, and turned on our NOAA weather radio, which reported sustained winds of 15 MPH and gusts up to 30 MPH, until 03:00 AM. The winds and wave action kept increasing for hours, and when the NOAA weather forecast announced that the worst was over, and we would have diminishing winds for the rest of the early morning hours, the winds became much worse.

By this time, the power had gone out, and we were listening by battery power, with no lights, except 12 volt, and no TV. The boat was rocking so wildly, that Glenda was becoming nauseous. We had heard a lot of noise...the sound of steel parts crunching, which I assumed was some roof panels becoming loose blowing in the wind.

At one point earlier, I had stepped off the boat, and onto the dock, but as soon as I did, a wave hit me at the knees, and I decided that I would be safer on the boat.

Looking out the front glass door of the boat, I saw that my bow was angled approximately 30 degrees away from the dock, and the posts supporting the roof of the dock, were no longer upright but were vertical and parallel. They were all at an angle. I had no further time to contemplate the roof supports, as I had broken loose.

I said to Glenda; " We've broken loose!" She was petrified.  I knew there was nothing we could do but ride it out. 

I walked to the front deck, and saw that we had turned 180 degrees but one of my 8 dock lines was still secure.  Our houseboat is 85 feet long, allowing for an additional 10 feet of dock line, I was near to the end of B Dock. I was probably 25 feet or so away from the MY “Down Time”.  I also noticed that my deck boat had broken loose. It had been tied to my rear port side, but was floating in circles between A & B Docks. Then, I noticed that my boat had gotten closer to my original mooring, on the end of A Dock.  I went to the swim platform with a 1" diameter, very heavy duty dock line, and was able to get that line secured, as my stern was only a couple feet away from the original corner of A-Dock. Then, I noticed that the deck boat had floated back near its original position on the rear of my port side. I was able to get on it, and secure a line.  Suddenly, I was again parallel to A-Dock, almost back in my original position.  I opened the front hatch and grabbed another long 1" line tied back to an upright post on the dock. I felt secure then, as we were back where we started from. I did wonder what had become of the steel structure.

All of this must have been less than 10 minutes. Glenda said, " Max, there are trees!  There's cars"!  I looked up and saw the silhouette of trees against the sky and the red tail lights of cars and trucks driving by on the highway. Then I knew...there was more involved than simply my boat breaking away in the storm.  

I got off the boat from my rear deck and saw lights from both Chuck Ruddy and Paul Wolfberger. They were the only other people on the dock that we knew of. I noticed that I had a missed call on my cell phone, from Bill Ingram, and tried to return his call, with no answer.

During the worst of the storm, we talked with Lisa, the yacht club manager, who was out in the storm, on the walkway, where the docks had broken loose. Glenda told her to get back in her house, as it was far too dangerous to be out in this storm.

Chuck, Paul, and I assessed the damage, concluding that everyone was safe, no injuries, and no vessels that appeared to be in immediate danger of sinking nor any fuel leaks.

On the shoulder of Highway 431, a crowd had gathered.  Emergency vehicles then several first responders made their way through the trees, took the cover off my deck boat, and were able to use it as a land bridge to the rear deck of our boat, crossing to what was left of our docks. We planned to stay until daylight, but decided we must get off our boats and the dock.  It just couldn't be safe.

I've never been so glad to see Fire/Rescue personnel, Alabama Marine Police, Marshall County Sheriff's Department and City of Guntersville Police. And it was heartwarming to see a welcoming party on shore including Emmett Smith, and Rony Najjar in his hospital scrubs.

One of the Fire/Rescue guys was standing on my rear deck and asked where was "Its 5 O'clock Somewhere"? I told him that he was standing on it. They had previously been called to rescue Bill Ingram and family from the party dock, and they were concerned for us, not knowing that we had been blown away.

I later realized that my boat did not break away.  A-Dock broke away. I was tied to A-Dock with 8 fairly new 5/8" dock lines and when it broke away, the steel frame between my boat and A-Dock shredded 7 of those lines, leaving only the last one on the stern, that was beyond the steel frame. My only other conclusion is that after breaking away, A-Dock must have collided with B-Dock, breaking it away, and both were blown to the position where everything rests now, beside Highway 431.

We'll build back.  Better than before.  But this is a night I will never forget.

Max Thompson