[justme]

krissy, in all probability, (jim, I'm not saying I know for a fact, because I wasn't there) it was due to lightning in the area. It is highly unlikely that everyone would go inside and leave the gate area for any other reason. Rudy is right in that if there is lightning in the AREA, that is to mean within 10 MILES of ANY PART of the AIRFIELD, (in my experience), employees are asked to drop everything and get inside ASAP. Now, with that said, I know from personal experience working in such conditions that it wouldn't have been very hard, or taken more than an extra 2 seconds to close the curtains on the bag cart to hopefully keep your bags dry. When I was in similar situations, I closed all the curtains I could find on my way to the door. I wouldn't want my stuff to get wet either, and understandably so. I'm guessing, based on my past experience, that the reason your bags were wet was because it was still pouring rain while they loaded the bags. IF there was lightning in the area and the ramp agents were asked to go inside for safety reasons, they don't necessarily wait until it stops raining to go back out. They wait until the lightning has stopped or moved further away. So, if it was still raining while they loaded the bags on the flight, they are going to get wet, there's nothing they can do about it short of holding an umbrella over every bag on it's way from the cart to the airplane. As far as making an announcement in the gate area, it's the same idea as closing the curtains, it could have, and should have been done. But the simple fact is that when the weather is that bad, the gate agent is probably VERY busy with other things like re-booking, missing connections, stand-bys, etc and either didn't have the time or forgot in the chaos. Sorry you had to wear wet boots, I know that sucks! Hooah!

Side note - I've seen more than one guy actually struck by lightning because they didn't pay attention to the warnings and get inside fast enough, fortunately they both lived with minor injuries.