[There was a video here]

Chaos and relief erupted at a county fair in Montana over the weekend after a severe thunderstorm tore down two crowded tents and stopped a Rick Springfield concert from happening. The storm also set free a majestic herd of alpacas, bless its heart.

Aussie singer Rick Springfield ("you know I wish that I had Jessie's girl," that Rick Springfield) was set to perform at a county fair in the town of Baker when the storm struck. The five-hit wonder posted the above video to his Facebook page with the following caption:

We played a fair in Montana yesterday. Well, we didn't actually play because this happened. My amp and a couple of guitars are toast. So much for playing outdoor gigs in tornado country!

Rick

The video shows quite a few people taking refuge under the tents when the storm picks up the makeshift structures and tosses them a few dozen feet downwind. It doesn't appear that anyone was seriously injured, but the people aren't important — the guys in the video have the right idea, immediately screaming "oh ****, oh ****, is that my bass, man!?"

Thankfully, rain destroyed the equipment, saving the crowd from having to hear the concert.

The phenomenon seen in the video isn't a tornado, but rather straight-line winds from a severe thunderstorm. AccuWeather reports that wind gusts reached 64 MPH during the height of the storm.

Taking refuge from a storm under a flimsy structure like a tent is almost worse than standing outside with no shelter. As we've seen time and time again with bounce houses, it doesn't take a very strong wind gust to tear down something even lighter.

[Video via Rick Springfield | h/t Jason Vaughn, wordsmith in charge of the awesome sub-blog The West]