Wild times!

Just got my power back this afternoon, Friday about 1:30pm central time, my area in So. Illinois got hit by what they are calling an "inland hurricane", with winds up to 106MPH.

We have massive damage of 3-4 counties, with over 2000 utility workers brought in to do repairs.

Been interesting, and a decent opportunity to trial run some of my emergency plans, and evaluate how well some things worked and some didn't.

We have some damage to the house, with a huge tree that uprooted in our front yard, but luckily it missed the house and barely touched my car.



Marion, and Herrin Illinois are bad, and Carbondale is REALLY bad.

Glad you came through in good shape.

Been wondering we had anyone in that.

Good dodging on your part.

Here's some more pictures of random shots around town. These are from areas where I was able to drive, just getting out to get some ice. Lots of my town is still pretty bad, especially in residential areas.

The back of my house.


Down my street:






Entire row of trees at the Catholic Church.

A friends family home.


Tent city set up for Ameren CIPS Utility workers. Over 2000 have been brought in to restore power to the area of Williamson and Jackson counties.





Dept. of Homeland Security joint help command center.

Some downtown:






I've not been able to go over to Carbondale, they got hit even worse.

Glad to hear you made it through the event OK.

Mike

Bear--good to see you came thru ok..i saw this on the news and the web tonite..it's a reminder that all "survival" problems are not solar flares or mega-volcanos but unexpected every day events that we should be ready for.outside of dumping the canoe on a wilderness lake storms like this are my only real concern.a heavy wind thru South Minneapolis could bring down some of the very large trees out on the street or the 60 foot pine in the back yard.Minneapolis like other Midwest citys has had some nasty storms.from what i picked up on this site i replaced my blue tarps with sheets of plywood and a roll of tarpaper for hasty roof repairs..take care down there and good luck

I'm glad you and your's are OK.

It seems that southern Illinois and southern Wisconsin have really taken a hit with weather.

Glad you and yours are well.

It's interesting to see the pictures of what happened. Thanks.

Wow. And here I was, complaining about our local 45mph wind gusts.

Thanks for the report/pics.

Dang, aren't you kind of far inland for a hurricane?!

-Blast

That's kinda what I thought!!!!!

My girlfriend and I were driving from Detroit down to Missouri and kinda/sorta passed through a similar cell. Golf-ball hail (supposedly), 60mph gusts. We were getting close to town and got a call that a tornado hit town and that the highway into town was closed. Fortunately, the house I rent out is OK.

Probably should have pulled over, but the stretch of highway didn't really have any shelter or overhead cover, so just slowed way down, turned on all the lights, and muddled through. We DID get a bit of that green/mustard yellow sky and got a bit concerned of a tornado, but fortunately nothing popped over us.

Worst storm I've seen in this area personally, but would have been "fun" if I wasn't driving.

Glad the house is OK.

Wow! Great photos! Glad nothing was damage too badly and everyone's safe.

Stay safe!