On May 8th, a huge storm blew through southern Illinois. It wasn't just a thunderstorm, it wasn't an inland hurricane, it wasn't a tornado. It was a derecho, a term I don't recall hearing before. Read about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derecho
I drove through the first wave as I left Murphysboro. I was half way to an airshow in Branson when Sandy called and told me they were getting blasted by the second wave, which the local weather guy called "the head of the comma". There were sustained winds of 90 mph and gusts over 100 mph.
Here is a technical description of the storm. Scroll down to May 10.
http://www.weather.com/blog/weather/?from=blogredirect%3f
Here are a bunch of photos showing the impact.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thesouthern sets/72157618012419861/show/We were without power for 6 days. Well technically, Sandy was without power for 6 days. I only was unconvinced for three nights because the first four I was staying in the Hilton in Branson.
Thousands of trees down, perhaps 2,000 utility poles broken and hundreds of utility workers from as far as Florida and Pennsylvania came in to clean up the mess.
We lucked out. Just a little damage to the gutter on the garage and a few tree limbs.
The big question is; How can we live in southern Illinois without a basement or storm shelter? How crazy is that?
Our house sits in what was the path of the 1925 Tri State Tornado, the worst tornado the nation has ever seen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tri-State_Tornado Take a look at the photo of Longfellow School on the Wikipedia page. They never rebuilt the school but converted the land. Longfellow Park is about three blocks from our home.
While there was damage to some buildings at the Southern Illinois Airport, MDH, the T-hangars and the planes within them were unscathed.
