Winds Cause Problems at Raspberry Days

GARDEN CITY, Utah —  It wouldn’t be Raspberry Days without the usual rows of vendors and a bit of wind.

But several business owners, like Debrah Kitchen, from Farmington, didn’t expect what they found Thursday night after 50 mile per hour winds ripped through Garden City.

“And like there’s wet stuff everywhere,” said Kitchen, “So they toppled over and took some booths with them, including mine.”

Kind of like dominoes, Kitchen said one booth blew into another, and then several more.

Kitchen got a phone call about a half-an-hour after she left, telling her that her booth was down.

Some of the tents ended up on lawns and on cars. Some people say they even found pieces over on the beach.

But by the time Kitchen made it back to her booth, she said, “They were all taking their time to help clean up the mess.”

Volunteer firefighters, and a crowd of Garden City locals were all pitching in, gathering her tent and merchandise.

“They just kind of came to the rescue… cleaned it all up and it just… I don’t think I’ve processed everything yet because I’ve had to keep going,” said Kitchen.

Then there were others, like Brenda Brundage, from Ogden, who said she couldn’t make it back out Thursday night after she got the call that her tent had collapsed.

Brundage said, “So we came down this morning and kind of rebuilt everything.”

And the crowd of local volunteers showed up again.

“Great effort to kind of see everybody come together and help everybody put their stuff back together,” said Brundage.

And that’s how they did it, getting back to business, even if some vendors still felt a little stress.

“It was all very overwhelming… I didn’t know what I expected. I don’t know what I feel right now, just gratitude for all the help.”