PORT ANGELES — Wind gusts early Sunday morning toppled tents and injured a security guard at this weekend’s Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival.
The security guard was attempting to tie down a corner of the large festival tent at about 2 a.m. Sunday — when gusts were at their worst — when the wind caught the flap and sent him flying a few feet, said Scott Nagel, festival organizer.
Nagel did not name the security guard but said the guards were all local people hired directly by the festival.
The man broke a couple of bones but was treated and released by Olympic Medical Center, Nagel said.
“He’s home now and resting,” Nagel said.
The National Weather Service recorded gusts up to 32 mph in Port Angeles, said meteorologist Jay Neher.
He added that at City Pier and near the Strait of Juan de Fuca, there were potentially higher winds than at William R. Fairchild International Airport, where the data is recorded for the National Weather Service.
The same level of winds was recorded at the Quillayute Airport near Forks, he said.
41 mph in Port Townsend
Port Townsend and other areas of Jefferson County had winds up to 41 mph on Saturday night, according to the National Weather Service.
About 10 tents at the festival were damaged beyond the point of reopening, Nagel said.
Despite the damage — which was discovered in the early morning hours Sunday — most of the vendors on City Pier were reopened, Nagel said.
“Most people were very well-prepared, and we talked about how to secure the tents,” Nagel said.
“The weirdest part was that it was just a few scattered tents that went down.
“It wasn’t a whole row or anything like that.
“There didn’t seem to be a pattern because even those that were broken or blown away were very well-secured.”
Barry Crust of University Place makes beach-wood products for his business Beyond the Beach.
“I was one of the lucky ones — I didn’t lose anything,” he said.
Many lost merchandise
“But when we first got here, a lot of people had lost a lot of their merchandise.”
His “next door neighbor,” Home Treasures, lost about half its merchandise, one of the owners, Joe Attolini of Ferndale, said.
The items, which include many ceramic plates, vases and decorative items, are made by Attolini’s wife, Sheryl, he said.
“We thought about leaving, but then we decided we could stay for today with the things that survived,” he said.
It is the couple’s fifth year at the festival, and Attolini said they’ve never had any issues with the wind before.
“It is always great,” he said.
“We’ll be back next year.
“Yesterday [Saturday] was really great even though it rained; we still had a lot of customers.”
Dennis and Nancy Johnson, who sell handmade pens and nameplates, lost all of their nameplate merchandise but reopened the tent to sell the pens Sunday.
Dani Keller of Sequim, who sells BookHooks, said a couple of her bookmarks were lost to the sea, but for the most part her items were found among wet table clothes — a result of the tables tipping a certain way and gathering all the bookmarks together.
Both of her neighboring vendors left after their tents could not be set up again.
“On my tent, the only thing that happened were the ropes broke — but the Boys Scouts loaned me some to fix that,” Keller said.
Attendance holds
Despite the rain Saturday, Nagel said the attendance held firm.
“All of the major hotels were booked up, so we found that a lot of people came out anyway,” he said.
“People have been really great, and on Saturday it was more of a warm rain — still T-shirt weather.
“It was a good day.”
He said that the Peninsula Daily News Community Crab Feed drew 750 attendees — about 150 more than the 2009 feed.
He said he couldn’t estimate total attendance, but because of bigger numbers on Sunday, he suspected it would meet last year’s 15,000 people.
__________
Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
