L'aura del Campo

Was it a tornado?

Winter 11 'Ala (March 12)

2006-03-12
afternoon, 74 degrees. 57 in Peoria, IL.

Well was it a tornado, a series of tornados, microbursts or what?

I was at Henry's when in seconds the whoosh of wind had cleaned out the allyway, tossed metal trash containers, ripped awnings, torn off signal lights, snapped trees, etc. It was wild. Even saw 2 transformers pop!

I thought then and still do that the winds had to be 80 to 100 mph at least. Downtown was trashed. Windows of the businesses and upper apartments were smashed. Most every car had broken windows. Roofing and the stones normally found on top was strewn everywhere in drifts. Awnings were everywhere, some of them mangled and wrapped around trees.

Plymouth Church on Vermont which dates back to 1854, once had 4 brick spires along the roof on its east side. No more. Only two remain. This one guy had a brick in his hand and said, "I'm the first person to touch this brick in over a hundred years." Profound enough for me!

Called my mother, my aunt and two friends so no one would panic. No deaths that we know of. But Cecilia's mom got banged up when a door smashed into her. I'm sure there were other injuries as well.

That was at 8:30 a.m. A rude awakening for the folks in the lofts. The sirens didn't go off until after the storm came through! There should be hell-to-pay about that. Around 1 in the afternoon, the cops were touring downtown telling everyone to take cover because another severe thunderstorm was coming and there was a tornado warning. We got lucky. Storm skirted us to the east. We are still at risk as there is a storm south of us and the watches are on till 10 p.m.

Campus was trashed. I took a tour. Lots of trees snapped off. Lots of branches down. Danforth Chapel lost some of it roof tiles. Terra cotta everywhere.

My favorite elm, maple and sycamore trees came through the storm, but the sycamore lost limbs in a path that looks like a boneyard. Some damage was close to the ground as well. GSP dorm lost windows. The university had no power and no computers.

I ran into Kathleen McCluskey-Fawcett, the emergency coordinator. She said a decision will be made at 8 p.m as to whether the university will open tomorrow. I'm sure safety will be a concern.

Whether it was a tornado or not will be debated. Some say they saw debris clouds. Some saw rotation. The area of 19th and Naismith was badly damaged. Overheard reports that 15th and New York and 23rd and Iowa were bad.

Anyway, no time to write more. I'm lucky the library is open! But it's closing now. I would have had to call Nada to tell her to tell everyone I was okay. Dodged that bullet !