Just as the rain began to break and the blue skies and sun made an appearance, winds picked up with gusts over 40MPH. Vendors trying to set up for today’s Ferndale Street Festival were not able to deal with the wind. At 10am it was decided to cancel the event this year.
The Ferndale Chamber of Commerce made the announcement with the event’s Facebook page:
Due to heavy wind we are shutting down the Street Festival this year.
According to an official with the Chamber, seeing the tent over the main stage levitate in the wind was pretty convincing that the safety of participants and attendees was beginning to become the biggest issue. So with safety in mind, the tough decision to shut down the festival was made just before 10am.
In hindsight, that was probably a good decision as winds exceeding 60MPH have been recorded in Ferndale. And power outages have occurred in and around downtown Ferndale.