A severe thunderstorm with heavy winds blew through Berkeley Springs State Park earlier this evening, snapping a giant tree at its base and sending the top of the tree onto the gazebo. Damage to the gazebo appeared minimal and apparently no one was hurt, even though people who were attending a Morgan Arts Council concert with the indie rock trio TEOA (The End of America) were scattering out of the park.
TEOA started playing in the park at around 5:30 pm. (The Philadelphia/Connecticut/New Hampshire based trio credit their name to Kerouac’s On The Road, traveling “across the groaning continent” in search of inspiration and reaching “the end of America, no more land, and now there was nowhere to go but back.”)
About fifteen minutes into the first set, the sky started to darken and winds started to blow. The lead singer asked the crowd if they wanted to hear one more song, a song about rain in Philadelphia.
But before the end of that last song, the winds picked up.
After the end of the rain in Philadelphia song, the concert was called off and people made a mad rush to their vehicles, through very heavy wind and soon heavy rain.
Then — snap. The tree drops onto the gazebo and the ground.