Dramatic dining in Newport

In a microburst, air moves in a downward motion until it hits ground level and then spreads outward in all directions. The wind regime in a microburst is opposite to that of a tornado.

From Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com

We witnessed a theatrical display of professionalism last Tuesday evening at the Reef Restaurant, on Newport Harbor, when out of not-very dark skies came a very brief but  very violent storm of torrential rain and what seemed to be near-hurricane-force winds.

Most  of the diners/drinkers, including us, were eating and drinking at the restaurant’s outside tables, with views of Newport Harbor and  of giant yachts that evoked hedge funders and private-equity moguls, when the tempest hit. The four  people in our party managed to get inside the restaurant ahead of most of the other guests; we were  driven more by fear of being fried by lightning than getting wet. A few minutes before, our  tall young waiter had promised that the storm,  which we could see moving  in from the west, wouldn’t bother us. One of our little group, a pilot, later explained that it was a microburst.

It was quite a scene as umbrellas, deck chairs, tables and potted palms went over.

What was most impressive, besides the drama of the storm itself, was how the waiters  so calmly managed to get people quickly set up  at tables  inside, though they hadn’t time to rescue the food on the tables outside. Of course, social distancing was, er, incomplete in the brief chaos, and many who had fled inside had left their masks in the rain, some of which blew away and all of which were soaked.

Still, most of the guests seemed to enjoy the mayhem. I wonder how many got replacement meals and drinks.

xxx

The National Hurricane Center knows how to force fear. In alerting people in the northwest Gulf Coast to the menace of Hurricane Laura, it spoke of an “unsurvivable storm surge.’’