Electric Forest urges festival goers to evacuate event site due to thunderstorms

ROTHBURY — Electric Forest Festival organizers urged festival attendees to exit the event site and stay inside their vehicles or protected areas as thunderstorms rolled across Lake Michigan Saturday evening, June 22, on the third day of the massive four-day event at the Double JJ Resort.

Festival attendees were alerted to return to their campsites from the concert venue; secure their tents; and seek shelter in their vehicles.

“Strong to severe thunderstorms are possible overnight,” stated the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids. “Damaging wind gusts will be the main threat. Torrential rainfall is also possible, especially north of I-96, and this may lead to localized flooding.” Oceana County, among several other nearby counties, is under a flood watch.

“Excessive runoff may result in flooding of rivers. Showers and thunderstorms with locally heavy rain could result in flooding for parts of the watch area into tonight. Rainfall rates in the strongest storms could top an inch per hour.”

A second round of storms caused a second evacuation Sunday night around 12:30 a.m., causing the four-day event to end early.