Inland Hurricane Devastates Southern Illinois
Look at that monster...
This sucker hit So. Illinois, SE Missouri, NW Kentucky, and So. Indiana on Friday. Local meteorologists are calling it an "inland hurricane." But don't look to the national media for any news on this event - it is non-existent.
Sustained winds averaged 86 MPH (96 by another estimate), but no one is certain, as the equipment used to measure these things was torn to shreds.
Did I mention the gusts? Highest gusts are estimated between 106 and 121 MPH.
This went on for FORTY FIVE MINUTES as the storm sat over us, rotating. The sustained winds put it in the Category 1 to Category 2 hurricane class.
The radar hits all look like a hurricane. The storm behaved EXACTLY like a hurricane, with an eye, wall winds, and the outer edge of the storm was spinning (blowing) faster than the interior.
And we received somewhere between 4 and 6 inches of rain during the 45 minutes of the storm.
The damage is incredibly widespread, covering an area roughly 40 miles wide by 120 miles long.
Global warming? Nah, of course not. We always get storms like this in the heart of the continent...NOT.
Better get used to it, folks. The science types around here predict more of these storms to come.
Did I mention our new governor has yet to declare an emergency down here? There is no power for about 160,000 people, and full power may not be restored for weeks. And the Federal government response has also been non-existent.
I went out and about in two of the counties damaged by the storm, Williamson and Franklin Counties. Jackson County, home of SIU, has been hit just as hard.
Pictures follow.
Tree blown over in cemetary
Tree crushed apartment building
There is a house under there...
Another house squished...
And another...
And another...
And another...
And another...
Crushed truck (the dirt around the roots was as tall as I am (6')...
Another house literally buried in fallen trees...
Our local airport hanger - the back end is shredded off of the building entirely...
Power lines look like this all over the area...
My sister's street - note the huge tree down the street laying on the ground...
My sister's house...
What remains of the oldest known tree in Williamson County, Illinois - estimated to be over 200 years old...
My parents got lucky - lost a tree and a window...
The pole in the middle is one leg of a HUGE sign that used to be there - if you look to the right, you'll see the stub of the sign's other leg...
Just outside of Johnston City, Illinois - the entire road looks like this for about five miles, with trees just pushed over...
A whole stand of trees uprooted, pulling the earth up with them, crashed into the house to the right...
Note: Received this from the homeowner of the house in this last picture:
There is so much more - what you've seen is just a small sample of the devastation. What appears to have been an inland hurricane, has occurred within the United States of America.
People need to know about this....
This sucker hit So. Illinois, SE Missouri, NW Kentucky, and So. Indiana on Friday. Local meteorologists are calling it an "inland hurricane." But don't look to the national media for any news on this event - it is non-existent.
Sustained winds averaged 86 MPH (96 by another estimate), but no one is certain, as the equipment used to measure these things was torn to shreds.
Did I mention the gusts? Highest gusts are estimated between 106 and 121 MPH.
This went on for FORTY FIVE MINUTES as the storm sat over us, rotating. The sustained winds put it in the Category 1 to Category 2 hurricane class.
The radar hits all look like a hurricane. The storm behaved EXACTLY like a hurricane, with an eye, wall winds, and the outer edge of the storm was spinning (blowing) faster than the interior.
And we received somewhere between 4 and 6 inches of rain during the 45 minutes of the storm.
The damage is incredibly widespread, covering an area roughly 40 miles wide by 120 miles long.
Global warming? Nah, of course not. We always get storms like this in the heart of the continent...NOT.
Better get used to it, folks. The science types around here predict more of these storms to come.
Did I mention our new governor has yet to declare an emergency down here? There is no power for about 160,000 people, and full power may not be restored for weeks. And the Federal government response has also been non-existent.
I went out and about in two of the counties damaged by the storm, Williamson and Franklin Counties. Jackson County, home of SIU, has been hit just as hard.
Pictures follow.
Tree blown over in cemetary
Tree crushed apartment building
There is a house under there...
Another house squished...
And another...
And another...
And another...
And another...
Crushed truck (the dirt around the roots was as tall as I am (6')...
Another house literally buried in fallen trees...
Our local airport hanger - the back end is shredded off of the building entirely...
Power lines look like this all over the area...
My sister's street - note the huge tree down the street laying on the ground...
My sister's house...
What remains of the oldest known tree in Williamson County, Illinois - estimated to be over 200 years old...
My parents got lucky - lost a tree and a window...
The pole in the middle is one leg of a HUGE sign that used to be there - if you look to the right, you'll see the stub of the sign's other leg...
Just outside of Johnston City, Illinois - the entire road looks like this for about five miles, with trees just pushed over...
A whole stand of trees uprooted, pulling the earth up with them, crashed into the house to the right...
Note: Received this from the homeowner of the house in this last picture:
The last picture on this blog is of my house, and I just wanted to politely correct the blogger. It wasn't a whole stand of trees which fell on my neighbor's house but one HUGE elm tree. It ripped up our drive way and yard like old carpet. (It certainly looks like a bunch of trees though, and trust me, when we cut it up, we had enough fire wood to last a life time) It was probably 100 years old. I feel like I have lost an old friend. Anyways, this storm was a huge blow to us all. Also, free fire wood for those who inquire :)+ + + +
There is so much more - what you've seen is just a small sample of the devastation. What appears to have been an inland hurricane, has occurred within the United States of America.
People need to know about this....
