Tornado Trauma

Well, it was another exciting day here in Illinois--unfortunately I mean the bad, tornadic kind of exciting. Supposedly tornado season was over, but obviously the tornadoes didn't get the memo. At about 2:30 this afternoon, some pretty dark clouds started showing up on the western horizon. I checked the weather radar on the computer, and it said that there was a tornado warning in Jacksonville, which is just west of Springfield. I told the rangers in charge, but they said that the storm looked like it would miss us. Well, about 15 minutes later, I looked again, and now they had issued a tornado warning for Sangamon County. Springfield is in Sangamon County! So again I told the head rangers, but because it was not storming yet, they said not to worry about it. At about 2:55 I called Greg, and he checked the radar and confirmed that it looked like the tornado was heading for Springfield. Just then, THE SIRENS WENT OFF! I was standing out in the neighborhood at this point, and I booked it down to where some of the other rangers were standing. Everyone was kind of frozen in fear. Luckily we managed to check all of the houses and get everyone down to the visitor center right before the storm hit. There was a tour group in the house when the sirens went off, but they all made it to the visitor center safely.
We probably had 70 or 80 people at the visitor center (which, though it is not underground, has been declared the safest place in the park), and then it got nasty outside. At one point the sirens stopped, and I called Greg to see if it was over, but he said that the worst was still to come--and he was right. At about 3:15 p.m., the sky outside turned this strange blackish-green color, the thunder and lightning picked up, and the rain started coming down in buckets. Then the rain started blowing at a 90 degree angle, and we knew that the storm had arrived (and the sirens had started again by this point). After about 10 minutes of the sky literally falling on Springfield, it all just kind of stopped. Everyone was a little freaked out, but at 3:30 we were able to let everyone out of the visitor center.

It turns out that the tornado (which I'm guessing had to be at least an EF2) touched down in Loami--which, you may remember, is where my friend Linda lives. And they always get hit by tornadoes! The latest news reports are saying that at least a dozen homes were destroyed there (and they were still cleaning up from a tornado back in March). I talked with Linda on the phone, and luckily their house is okay. She was in Springfield during the tornado, but her daughter was at home--and luckily everyone was all right. But Linda said that she could see the path the tornado took THROUGH THEIR YARD where it tore down some giant trees and ripped through the cornfields.

After hitting Loami, the tornado went over Springfield and touched down again in Williamsville, a little town just 7 miles east of Athens. One of the rangers, Jim, lives in Williamsville, and he called the park to tell them that there was a lot of damage there. He was worried that Athens would have gotten hit too, but thankfully Athens dodged a major bullet today. This evening when I got home, Greg and I decided to drive over to Williamsville to see what Jim was talking about, but when we saw a police blockade diverting traffic away from the town, we knew it must have been bad. We couldn't even get close to Williamsville. Then we turned on the radio and heard just how bad it was. My favorite antique mall was totally destroyed, as was the gas station next to it.

Pictured here is the Williamsville Christian Church, which, as you can see, was basically destroyed as well. This church is right next to a daycare center, so hopefully all of the kids are okay. There were some reported injuries at the church. There were a lot of injury reports, but so far no deaths. We heard that several subdivisions were totally destroyed. It's scary to think that this could have just as easily been Athens! What a crazy, terrible day! So, I am now even more traumatized about tornadoes than I was before, and am sure that my weekly tornado nightmares will probably increase in frequency. We just hope that everyone ends up being okay. The storm certainly put a damper on the Illinois State Fair today--but it sounded like everyone there was okay. I'm sure there will be more pictures of the storm and damage available in the near future.