The remains of the Bishopville Park pavilion that was flattened in late May will remain until county government officials and the county’s insurer establish what it will cost to remove and rebuild the structure.
The remains of the Bishopville Park pavilion that was flattened during a “microburst” in late May are pictured on Aug. 5.
Mallory Panuska Ames / Bayside Gazette
By Stewart Dobson, Editor
The remains of the Bishopville Park pavilion that was flattened during a “microburst” in late May will remain where they are until county government officials and the county’s insurer establish what it will cost to remove and rebuild the structure.
“Human Resources has been handling the insurance claim through LGIT (Local Government Insurance Trust), which has hired a building consultant to do an evaluation of the shelter,” county Public Information Officer Kim Moses said last week.
“HR is still waiting to hear back from them. Recreation and Parks has received a quote through a cooperative contract to clean up and rebuild. Once they hear back from LGIT, they will begin the cleanup and rebuild using the existing slab,” she said.
The pavilion was destroyed in a May 24 microburst, which the National Weather Service describes as a narrow but violent downdraft of wind (like a tornado in reverse) that can occur during thunderstorms.
As the weather service explains it, microbursts form when updrafts of warm air in those towering cumulonimbus thunderheads are so strong (50 mph and up) that they suspend water droplets and hail in the storm cell’s upper reaches.
Ultimately, these droplets cool, thereby weaking the updraft until it can no longer hold all the water and this column of cool air and moisture rushes to the ground in one mighty, but narrowly focused, whoosh.
The wind speeds in these downdrafts have been clocked at 100 mph and higher, according to the weather service, but because they’re so confined and occur and disappear so quickly — generally 5 minutes or less — they don’t always show up on the weather radar. It is also why they can go undetected by weather instruments located a short distance away.
The May 24 thunderstorm storm also generated a microburst in midtown Ocean City, where the wind destroyed parts of the roof on a condominium building but left adjacent properties unscathed.
Moses said county Parks Superintendent Jacob Stephens expects to hear from LGIT by the end of this week.