CALLAWAY- Wind gusts over 100 miles an hour are too intense for a kite of any size, let alone the human being on the other end of the string. On July 29 Foster Smith Field, site of the annual Callaway Kite Flight, experienced straight line winds that are estimated to have been over one hundred miles per hour.
Although a physical tornado was not confirmed, the straight line wind speeds that hit Callaway without rotation are comparable to one. An F1 tornado on the Fujita Scale is defined as having wind speeds between 73 and 112 miles per hour.
Despite suffering building-crippling gusts that left roofs and siding strewn hundreds of yards away, event organizer Kindle Rice told KCNI/KBBN that year 32 of the Labor Day weekend event will go on as planned. Soon, kites as big as semi-trucks and as small as those in our childhood memories will fly.
“It is a go. Absolutely! The buildings are gone, the event remains” said Rice.
Shattered glass, a detached sink, and squares of dirt and cement where two buildings once stood dot the highest point of the field, where Rice points out the irony that underlies the tragedy.
“No kite flyer would want to be out here in that kind of wind, absolutely not. Those big kites, right around 4 to 6 miles an hour is their prime wind speed. So, you think about the power of the wind at 6 miles an hour big enough to lift a kite and the power of the wind at 110 miles an hour to blow a building down; the comparison is unreal.”
She continued by speaking on the strength and adversity of the Callaway community coming together to clean up their town following the storm.
“This community comes together like you would not believe. There are always people out immediately willing to help and a lot of times people have their own stuff to clean up, but they will go find the person who needs the most help and they will get things done and moving.”
Highway 40 travelers who look to the top of the hill will see an iron flag pole that, despite being bent halfway to the ground, is the tallest object next to the wind sock that shrugged off the wind like it was nothing.
Rice sighed, “My poor flag pole is bent at a 90 degree angle. There were no flags on it. It just couldn’t sustain the winds.”
The 32nd annual Callaway Kite Flight is quickly arriving, featuring favorites like a watermelon feed, a night flight, sweet treats, barrel train rides, face painting, a catfish fry, and of course kite flying.
Rice puts a bow on the mindset of all those who have made the Kite Flight so special for the last three decades, “Fortunately the grounds are fine. Yeah, there’s some debris that’s still kind of hanging out but we’re ready. We can do this. This will not be a problem. We will set up tents and we will persevere!”
