High wind problems

Just before we arrived at the Denali Park Village we crossed this bridge.  The red flag on the left of the bridge is a wind sock. It was an extremely windy day and Dutchess had been buffeted on the drive south from Fairbanks. As we rounded the corner and drove on to the bridge, the wind hit the side of the motor home and the next thing we knew was the  21 foot awning was flapping along the side of the motor home.  It gave us both a HELL of a fright.  Bill slowed down to a crawl and we limped into the first  pull off we could find. Parked with the awning down wind. It had half unraveled and the up/down switch had been bent and jammed.  Bill had to get out the ladder and a hammer to try to straighten the lever.  Finally we were able to unroll enough to roll it up completely.  As we pulled out of the rest area we noticed another awning complete with hardware lying in the grass.  We drove very slowly the rest of the way to Denali Grizzly Bear RV Park.
When we got to Valley  RV Service in Wasilla the technician just shook his head when we said where it had happened and we are certainly not the first to have that problem there. The big spring in the roller has to be replaced but it would take 10 working days to get one in, the technician said the awning was working OK but to keep extra electrical tie raps on both awning arms, so it could not unravel again.