Awning damage in last night's thunderstorm

I mentioned in last night's post that we were supposed to have some thunderstorms. Boy, did we ever!! It started raining around 9:00 with thunder and lightning. We had been having really heavy rain for a while when I looked out of the window at 10:00 and realized that our awning was sagging. Oh yes, that is also the time when the electricity went off.

Even though we had the awning tilted to allow the rain water to run off and it had been, the rain was coming down so hard and fast that the rain water wasn't draining off fast enough to keep up with the downpour.

Mike went out and tried to dump the water from the awning by lifting it up with the broom, but it wasn't working. Mike finally climbed up on the ladder and pushed against the awning using his head and shoulders to lift the awning and dump the water. It worked and after about 15 minutes or so, Mike had managed to dump the water that had accumulated in the awning.

I went outside and helped Mike lower the awning and put it up, but the release lever to allow the awning to roll up was jammed and Mike had to take a hammer to loosen it. Then we
could store the awning, but it didn't roll up correctly on the roll tube. We did get it rolled up enough that it wouldn't collect water again and Mike used rope to tie the awning arms together so it wouldn't unroll.

We were both soaked when we came back inside and had to change our clothes. We had turned on our inverter when the power went off, so we were able to keep watching TV.
The electricity still hadn't come back on by the time we went to bed.

The power came back on this morning around 5:30. We slept in until almost 9:00 and woke up to sunny skies. After breakfast Mike started calling a couple of campgrounds to make reservations for the last 2 weeks in June and we were able to get the dates we wanted.

Then we went outside to work on the awning. We did manage to get it opened even though it had rolled up unevenly. Now in the daylight we could see the reason it wouldn't roll up correctly - the roll tube was bent from the weight of the rain water that had accumulated.

Mike called our insurance company and started the claim process. Then he called the Camping World in Charleston, SC to see about ordering a replacement. They suggested replacing just the roll tube and the awning fabric since the hardware attached to the RV isn't damaged. However they wouldn't be able get the roll tube and fabric in by next week when we will be in Yemassee which is 65 miles from Charleston.

Mike then called the Camping World in Garner, NC and they are checking to see how soon they can get the roll tube and awning fabric in from Dometic and when they can install it. We will be at a state park near Raleigh in mid-June and may have to extend our stay there so we can have the work done. The Camping World is only about 35 miles from the state park.

This afternoon we put the awning in and Mike stood on the ladder and turned the roll tube as we closed the awning and it rolled up better, but not perfect. We were able to latch the awning arms and Mike locked the awning lock, but he still used Gorilla tape to secure the awning arms closed at the top as insurance that it won't unroll while we're driving.

We did take photos of the awning to send in for our insurance claim. We took several photos before we settled on 2 that accurately show the bend in the roll tube.

From Pointes West Army Resort

From Pointes West Army Resort