As usual, Chicago people(not anyone on this board) have NO CONCEPT of Illinois(what's South of I-80)!
Downstate Bloomington Pantagraph reporting this morning that the downtown area of Utica, IL was pretty much flattened with at least four deaths believed to have resulted from a tavern collapse. Granville, IL, southwest of Lasalle-Peru, sustained damage to at least 60 houses.
from today's Joliet Herald News
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/ Homes damaged as weather pattern rips through Joliet
By Joe Hosey and Jill Jedlowski
STAFF WRITERS
A ferocious spring storm ripped through Joliet Tuesday night, ravaging some of the city's most majestic homes and shredding roofs, uprooting trees and leveling garages.
Whipping winds wreaked havoc on a several-block radius around Western Avenue throughout the Cathedral area starting just before 8 p.m. The most severe damage occurred between Marion and Ruby streets, and Reed Street and the Des Plaines River.
"A four- or five-block area just got nailed," said Joliet Officer Bill Yezo.
Fallen trees blocked roadways, laid in yards and rested in splintered porches. Downed powerlines, bricks, wood and other debris littered the streets.
A coach house collapsed and a camper was turned on its top at Jeff and Laura Pritz's 1898 home on the corner of Western and Clement Street. The chimney collapsed, and the interior walls cracked.
"My ears started popping, we ran in the basement, and on the way, you could see the house start to come apart," said Jeff Pritz, who is a Joliet Grade School District board member.
Tending to the mess
They planned to spend the night boarding up busted windows and tending to what messes they could in the darkness of a neighborhood without electricity.
"The good thing is, hey, we're all safe," Pritz said.
Across the street, Sue Bornhoffen, Pritz's sister, said the entire rear of her house was wiped out.
"Everything, all the kids' clothes, was pushed to the middle of the house," Bornhoffen said.
She, too, was glad to have family close.
"Our family is strength in numbers," she said. "We can get through anything."
On North Raynor Avenue, Matthew Johnson found pieces from a neighboring apartment complex coming through his bedroom window. He said he heard the sound of a train and darted for the bathroom with his dog and girlfriend when windows started breaking.
"I've got a roof in my freakin' bedroom," he said. "There's water leaking in everywhere. It's a bad day."
Roofless building
Nick Alsip, who lives in the now-roofless apartment building at 155 N. Raynor, said his ceiling was cracked, and he wasn't sure where he was going to spend the night. He was awaiting word from his landlord, who was dealing with problems at another nearby property.
"If we get anymore rain, the ceiling's going to fall in," Alsip said.
Sherry LaFrenere was left with a headache and a lump on her head after being struck by falling bricks from her home's chimney as they ran for the basement. Sherry, her husband, her daughter, Nicole Kulpin, and Kulpin's friend, Channing Gordon, were in their apartment at Campbell Street and Raynor Avenue when the storm hit.
"I'm just glad my kids are all right," Sherry LaFrenere said.
"I opened the door to get down into the basement, and it was so windy you could hardly see," LaFrenere's husband said. "You just held on to the person in front of you to make sure they were safe."
Walgreens damaged
Part of the roof of the 916 W. Jefferson Walgreens came down and windows were smashed, but no customers or employees were injured.
Police Sgt. Mike Kljaich turned off Campbell Street onto Raynor Avenue, and into blinding rains and blasting winds. "I think it was a microburst," he said. "A limb came down off a tree and smashed through my front windshield. There was glass flying all over the place."
Kljaich, who didn't see the tree limb come down on his patrol car, wasn't hurt.
Rubber-neckers tied up traffic already snarled by downed trees and powerlines.
"It was mostly curiosity seekers," Police Chief David Gerdes said of the motorists rerouted through clogged thoroughfares west of Reed Street. "Some people were trying to get back to their homes."
One frustrated motorist, worried about the welfare of his ferrets, complained when police diverted his route home. His protests fell on deaf ears.
Nothing to call home
Others had no homes to return to, but few were left without options.
"Not a lot of people so far have asked for shelter," said Fire Chief Joseph Drick. "Most people had someplace to go."
Those who were displaced were assisted by the Red Cross and Salvation Army, said Brenda Lutz of the Will County Emergency Management Agency.
Firefighters and police officers went door-to-door in the affected area to ensure no one was in danger or need of assistance. Officers also were stationed at unsecured buildings.
The only storm-related injuries were minor, Gerdes said, and fire department paramedics made no hospital runs.
"It's very miraculous, considering what could have happened," Drick said.
04/21/04
Ya'll stay safe. I was right in the middle of it in Indiana last night - literally.