From Don Covington

BlowDown, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. Summer storms tear down circus tents -- show will go on By GENE ZALESKI, T&D Staff Writer Friday, June 12, 2009 When nightfall arrived Wednesday, Liebling Brothers Family Circus staff member Jim Robinson was stationed in his usual place under the circus’ 38-foot-tall big top tent. “When the big top is up, that is where I usually hang out at night,” Robinson said. “I was sitting in there listening to the radio and trying to stay out of the rain.” And then chaos struck. “It started raining pretty hard,” he said. “Then it started raining buckets. The wind picked up and it picked up again. Two good, solid gusts.” When the winds picked up, so did Robinson. “When the tent poles started rattling, I know enough about tents, ... it is time to get out from underneath it,” Robinson said. “I would never have anticipated this thing coming down the way it did. I was literally running for my life.” Robinson said eventually the wind would carry the tent several feet, propelling it on top of a storage trailer and the animal haulers. “None of the animals were injured,” he said. The Liebling children, Mariska, Cathalina and Tomi, had all gone to see the “Night at the Museum 2” when the storm rolled through. “We are just very glad nobody got hurt,” 10-year-old Mariska said. Cathalina, 13, said even Tiny, the 6,800-pound elephant, was frightened. “She was so scared,” Cathalina said. Mariska said Tiny made it through the storm. “She (Tiny) is fine,” she said. “She did not even get a scratch.” Circus co-owner Tom Liebling was heading down to the family’s home in Florida to pick up an additional hauling trailer when word came that the tent had been destroyed. He was told to pick up an extra tent. “There is no terrible damage,” Robinson said. “There is nothing structural. We don’t want to put a tent up with tears flapping and ripping and making it worse.” Despite the storm, the show will go on, Robinson said. The Orangeburg Department of Public Utilities reported a maximum wind speed at 22 miles per hour around 8:03 p.m. The area was under a severe thunderstorm warning from 8:15 p.m. to 9 p.m. The same storm knocked down trees and power lines in the Sandy Run and Fort Motte areas of Calhoun County. It also damaged one of the county’s fire radio systems and a back-up generator. A lightning strike caused a minor house fire. But Mariska said the storm has not put a damper on the spirits of the circus performers. “Nobody can control the weather,” she said. Circus dealt another blow by Thursday storm Liebling Brothers Family Circus was hit with another stroke of bad luck late Thursday afternoon as wind destroyed poles that support the circus’ pony tent. Earlier in the day, circus co-owner Frannciszka Liebling said the circus planned on having something for the public, big tent or no tent. But after losing the pony tent Thursday, she said the circus would need to regroup, cancel all events scheduled for Thursday and prepare for rebuilding the show in time for performances on Friday and the rest of the weekend. “The stakes pulled loose and about two or three of the support poles snapped,” Liebling said. “So it is back to the drawing board. We hear there is a good welder in town. We’ll get the poles welded and be back on schedule for (Friday) at 7 p.m. Luckily, the pony tent didn’t rip.”