First and foremost, how's Katie? Fingers crossed for nothing serious.
As for the rest, reading the US Sailing presser gives a better picture. Sounds like they were getting blasted by shafts of wind coming through the mountains. Paige Railiey reported wind of 25 knots in one spot, 4 knots just 100 feet away. All of the stories were about the same: shifty and huge blasts of wind.
Hard for anyone to keep any cat upright and in one piece in those conditions.
