Easy answer, leave it out in a thunderstorm. I had planned on taking down our gazebo because I knew there was a batch of thunderstorms rolling through our area last night. I started taking down the curtains after work, but then we had to go get my car from the auto shop and we decided to have a pizza at Monelli's in Byron Center. When we got home it was time to bathe the boys and put them to bed. By the time we were saying prayers and good night to the boys, you could see a good amount of lightning and hear the thunder rolling across the sky. I quickly went out to finish taking down the gazebo. I got the screws that were securing it to the deck removed and started to lower it when the storm front hit. I held on to the frame tightly and at one point the whole thing was pulling me upward. I tried desperately to get it to fold into itself but it would not move. After about 30 seconds a big gust of wind blew in and the gazebo broke in half folding over the top of me. During that time Beth had been frantically running through the house closing windows and realized that I was out on the deck. As I made my way out from under the tent, Beth had just closed the sliding door. When she saw me, she opened it to let me in and I saw the whole kitchen floor covered in water. The wind was blowing so hard we had water almost to the living room. The news reported that there were recorded 70+ mile per hour gusts. After seeing what it did to the gazebo, I don't doubt it for a minute.
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