1 ALUMINUM BLINDS

Here's the story behind this innocent looking limb:

We all went to sleep to stars and clear skies at our lovely campsite
under the cottonwood trees by a stream. The weather report had said
possible rain and lows in the high 30s, but that was to be the worst
of it. It was Memorial Day weekend for gosh sake, how bad can the
weather get? But while we were sleeping, it snowed about 4 inches.
Brian got up about 7 a.m., set up extra shelter, made coffee, etc.,
and commented about all the "widowmakers" over our heads. He handed
me some coffee in the tent and took Logan out of the tent. About two
minutes later, I heard Brian say, "Logan walk to me. Come to Daddy."
Then 5 seconds after that, CRASH! The limb fell right where Logan had
been standing.

Brian had heard the cracking noise above. I'm glad it was Brian next
to Logan, because I just don't think I would have realized what was
going on in time. The limb crushed a portable table, ripped the shade
tent and tore some chrome off the 4-runner wheel area, but luckily
that was it. Needless to say, we all stood out in the snow in a
clearing for a minute saying "Wow." Then we all dragged and drove our
stuff to open space while branches dropped every few minutes. Then,
about two hours later, the snow stopped and all the snow started
melting and all was good again.

A rancher about a mile away said he'd never seen anything like that.
With leaves on the trees when it snowed, branches were down
everywhere, like a tornado had gone through.

Luckily, Logan just doesn't even realize what happened and if you ask
him if he likes camping, he still says, "Uh huh!"

A young baby is given some comfort in the shade of a ShelterBox tent. Her family lost their home in the recent flooding in Pernambuco.

ShelterBox is responding to floods that hit the Brazilian North East states of Pernambuco and Alagoas leaving over 100,000 homeless. The floods, caused by heavy rain fall, have been an annual event, but this year's are on a scale not seen before.

ShelterBox is responding with 1060 ShelterBoxes containing a disaster relief tent designed for one family unit, blankets, ground sheets, water filtration system, kids activity pack and rope.

08.07.2010 Photographer Thomas Lay