Jul 15, 20226 min read

Camp Mardela Storm Updates

Updated: Jul 16, 2022

Here is all of the updates from Tuesday night's storm in order, starting with the most recent. I hope this helps keep everyone up to date on what we are doing here at camp to clean up and make camp safe for our next group of campers.

July 16, 4:45pm

I am AMAZED at all that got done today! We had about 42 volunteers show up around 9am and we worked until about 2pm and got just about everything done! All of the trailed are cleared and raked, the big logs are moves, buildings are cleaned and ready for campers, and we are ready to start camp tomorrow.

Over the course of 4 days, we had about 80 volunteers come and help and worked approximately 360 hours cumulatively to get everything cleaned up. This is truly the power of community at work!

We could not have done this without you, so thank you for sacrificing your time and resources to help us get back up and running after this storm.

If you want to come and help, about the only thing left to do is raking in some areas, but we are just about finished with our recovery efforts. Once we hear back from insurance, we will know more about the Camp Store recuperation, but until then, we are ready to welcome campers back in on Sunday!

July 15, 7:10pm

We are starting to see some major progress in the storm recovery process!

We had some big machines come in from Timber Harvest, Inc to remove the large logs from the fire circle and fill in the holes. We also got most of the pond trails cleared, and started raking and cleaning the cabins and areas around the cabins. We also have moved the store temporarily into the glass room of King, as the damage to the store makes it uninhabitable at the moment.

Tomorrow we plan to start around 9am with a large work group. We will have some people cutting trees into smaller pieces, pulling widow makers out of trees, moving large debris, raking leaves and twigs, cleaning in preparation for campers on Sunday, and mowing the camp areas in preparation for camp activities as well. I know many are coming, and a lot of work has already been done, but a lot still needs to be done to make camp safe for campers on Sunday, so any way you can help us get cleaned up and ready is greatly appreciated.

So far, we've had about 40 volunteers come and help in one way or another, and we are deeply appreciative of your help. We can't do this without your help. It takes a village! We can also give students credit for service hours!

July 14, 9:36pm - Facebook

Day 2 of storm clean up.

We had some more volunteers come today and we were able to just about clear the trees next to the girls cabins and take a big chunk out of the large fire circle trees. Some local tree services also helped clear some of the pond trail, and tomorrow we will work to clear that remaining debris.

We had to move the inventory from the camp store after re-evaluating the state of that building. We also still have some general clean-up to do to prepare for 6 cabins of 3rd and 4th graders.

We decided to postpone Me & You camp to a weekend on August so we can dedicate Friday and Saturday to cleaning and preparing for Sunday's camp.

We're making good progress, but there is still lots to do. If you want to help out, we will be working again Friday, but mainly Saturday from 9am until we are finished.

July 13, 10:16pm - Facebook

Thank you to the volunteers who came out and helped yesterday and today. We were able to clean up the trees around the merry go round and the girls cabins. We've already seen a lot of progress between the workers yesterday night on the lane and the store and today in the camp area.

We have another work day planned for tomorrow starting at 9am. We still have to cut the large trees at the fire circle and clear many trees off of the trails, as there are no trails (except the lane) that are fully accessible. We are hoping to get camp cleaned up for our next campers coming in a few days.

If you are willing and able to help in anyway, you can come out any time Thursday, Friday, or Saturday to work. It has been encouraging to see so many people to come together to help, and it has already made a big difference.

July 13, 9:31pm - Email (Board)

We got some work done today, but we've still got more to do.

With the volunteers today we looked at the damage and it still looks like mostly roof damage to the store, Moss, and a bit of Sequoia. I also noticed some shingles flew off the Pavilion roof as well. The gaga pit at the pavilion was also damaged.

July 13, 12:17am - Facebook

Some of you may have heard Denton got some storms this evening, and we got a taste of it tonight.

Shortly after our Mini campers left, we got a major storm around 7:30pm that did a good bit of damage. Fortunately everyone who was here was unharmed, but we had some property damage, as we have MANY trees down.

A wonderful group of volunteers came as soon as they could to clear the trees on the lane and remove the tree from the store roof, but there is still a lot to do.

We have a camp scheduled to come in on Friday afternoon, and we are trying to clean up the damage before campers arrive again. If you would like to help with clean up, we will start tomorrow around 9am to assess what needs to be done. It will mostly be cutting the down trees.

Thoughts and prayers are also greatly appreciated.

July 12, 11:27pm - Email (Churches)

So tonight around 7:30pm Camp Mardela was hit pretty hard with the storms that blew through. Fortunately the people here were safe and unharmed, but we cannot say the same for the property.

We were able to get the lane cleared out tonight with the help of a large group of volunteers, but there is still a good bit to clean up around the buildings in the main areas, and likely on the trails to the pond that we have not gotten to assess yet.

If you are able to help, the biggest thing we need is help clearing out the major trees that have fallen. If you can, bring chainsaws, chains, trucks, tractors, and other heavy duty tree removal supplies. We will also need to repair and remove damaged property, such as the air conditioner that left a hole in the Moss cabin window and the dent in the camp store roof.

I will be up around 9am to assess damages and start the clean up process. If you are able to come out for any part of the day please let me know. Any and all help would be appreciated.

July 12, 10:55pm - Email (Board)

Good evening!

We got hit by the storm tonight pretty hard. Around 7:30pm as the last campers and counselors were leaving camp, a huge wind came though and took a good number of big trees down - several in the lane that left 2 cars stranded, but unharmed and undamaged. A couple cars in the main camp area got stuck as well, but again, no injuries and no damage.

The power came on around 10pm, so we did not have any food loss from this storm, but some property was damaged - the biggest items being the roof of the Camp store and the window air conditioner and window in Moss cabin. There appears to be some damage to Sequoia as well.

Tomorrow I plan to get a better assessment of the damage in the daylight and also check the trails and pond area for damage. There are many big trees down in the program areas, most notably 2 large trees right through the middle of the fire circle, a tree right next to the girl's bathroom, nearly blocking the entrance, and a large tree right around the merry go round.

I want to thank everyone who came out so quickly to help clear the lane and remove the tree for the store. There must have been at least 30 people that came to help and that was huge.

If you have any questions, concerns, prayers, or ways you can help, please let me know.