![[Photo Credit: L. Dake]](https://wildhunt.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/11059361_10204584122942831_1479918785680700413_n-375x500.jpg)
[Photo Credit:Beth Yoder-Balla]
As reported by local news, Illinois state emergency planners are now closely watching the Illinois River as the waters begin to rise, reaching flood-level in some locations. Due to the record downpours across the region, several cities have already initiated emergency plans.
Circle Magazine editor Florence Edwards-Miller said, “While PSG has endured severe weather before, including a near miss by a tornado at a different campground, this is the largest scale emergency in the festival’s 35-year history.”
During the Tuesday morning meeting, attendees were informed of this decision, and an emergency evacuation plan has been put into place. During stage one, those people camping in the flooded areas, such as Rainbow and Quiet, will be evacuated first. PSG has asked anyone in the drier areas of camp to help assist with the effort.
After the meeting and before the packing began, Rev Selena Fox led a “community ritual of healing and farewell.”
[Courtesy Pagan Spirit Gathering]
In the wake of the emergency, the community rallied to support those displaced and the PSG volunteers and Safety team. Offers of spare tents, bedding, and food flowed in and people opened their hearts and campsites to friends and strangers alike. Guest musician Wendy Rule performed for those displaced and waiting.This year’s PSG theme is ‘Celebrating Community’ and the community rose to the challenge.
Evacuating and clean-up won’t be easy. There are about 800 people currently on site at PSG, including the staff. Many cars still won’t start, and camping gear is underwater. In addition, the sanitation fields are flooded, which brings further safety and clean-up concerns. PSG will be holding a mandatory meeting tonight for those people still around. Edwards-Miller added:
PSG and Circle Sanctuary plan to release further information later in the week, but for now the focus is on helping those affected and on organizing a safe early departure from the site. Circle Sanctuary thanks the PSG community for a truly awe-inspiring display of strength and mutual support, and asks for continued understanding as we work together to get everyone home safely.
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May all be safe and spread that safety to all that need it.
Some cars won’t start, less than 10. Most cars are on high ground in good shape. No one is hurt and folks are in good spirits. Mostly we’re sad it is ending early. The site simply can’t accommodate this many people in this kind of weather. Hopefully the site will improve drainage and road conditions for next year. Evacuation is calm and orderly. People are shopping at the merchants and visiting friends. Weather is lovely now and roads are dry. Staff is helpful and seem to have things under control.
We’re staying one more night since we’re on hough ground and can help other folks who got moved to safety. PSG is amazing community to belong to.
Circle Sanctuary is coordinating an amazing, careful staged evacuation. Ample warning and assistance was given to lower camping areas last night as flood warnings were issued. Most importantly the community information was controlled in a way that supported an informed, safe and orderly evac. The sad part is the abrupt parting of this annual magical reunion.
I was at PSG and was camped in Rainbow, one of the areas affected by the flooding. I got out yesterday, with the help of some Wonderful volunteers, am now home and dry. Circle had an emergency plan, including a siren-alert system to notify folks. It WORKED. The vast majority of cars are usually parked in a field by a creek, which flooded. Many volunteers worked in knee-high water for a couple of hours to get cars (including mine!) to higher ground.
Another area of the Festival was cut off by water coming over an access road. again, volunteers and Circle’s safety and security staff, the Guardians, helped evacuate many of the campers there.
Thanks to advance planning and many blessed volunteers, there were no serious casualties and a lot less property damage then there could have been. This year’s theme for the festival was Community. I saw it in Action.
I too camped in Rainbow, I was at the bottom of the hill, and one of the first there to get my things out. On the first call I was told to grab what I could in five minutes, then to get my vehicle. I took two backpacks and my drum and made my way to the muddy field where I was parked. On the way out the rain began again, I paused on the road to get my suitcases with meds and other essentials only to see around half a dozen guys begin grabbing everything they could from in and around my tent and carrying it to my van. My tent was left to the elements. I slept that night in the rain, the next morning my tent was moved to higher ground, by volunteers, and when it came time for me to make the final departure, volunteers again came to my aid, breaking down my campsite, helping me find belongings around Rainbow, and driving me back out to my car. As someone who is disabled, I do depend on help to set up my camp and tear down, but everyone here went above and beyond, and I can’t thank them enough.
https://www.facebook.com/WisteriaEventSite?pnref=story
WIsteria Event Site in Ohio is offering a ‘refuge” rate to anyone that was planning on celebrating the solstice at PSG
It’s a nice (albeit opportunistic) gesture, but I think most of us refugees are ready for some indoor living again! 🙂
It was an ordeal, but it is within ordeal that we find the true measure of our values and the community which takes shape around those values. This ordeal revealed beyond any doubt an excellence of character and spirit within the PSG community which had been manifested in a thousand different ways in more typical years, but never tested under breaking point conditions. The staff and Guardians deserve high honors for their organization and execution of emergency plans and for the unfortunate but responsible decision to cancel the remainder of the event.
The disaster unfolded very quickly. I drove into Sandwich with a friend around 5:30 p.m. Monday. By the time I returned, I and maybe 1/3 or more of the attendees – everyone adjacent to the festival green and pond – were refugees. I got about half of my gear out of my spot near the pond, and by nightfall, the new pond in the festival green was spilling over the road into the main pond.
The community as a whole also rose to the challenge – moving other people’s gear, taking us in and feeding us, rescuing cars. The young men and women of the camp deserve special recognition because a lot cars and other gear was saved because of their incredible vigor. They also displayed a deep ethic of service and selflessness which I think is partly a credit to the values transmitted over years of young men and women’s rites of passage at PSG.
Above all else, I was impressed by the positive attitude which was maintained even through the worst of it. Despite little sleep, many missed meals, exhaustion from slogging through shin-deep mud and the losses, I didn’t really see any defeatism.
With a day of good sleep and dryness to go on, I can say that it was a privilege to be part of this year’s PSG.