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August 4, 2009

High winds tear across county

BY BRIAN L. HUCHEL

DANVILLE — Rough weather did little to hold back festivities at the Georgetown Fair as storms paraded across central Illinois on Tuesday.

“We were very fortunate,” said Scott Davis, a member of the fair’s board of directors.

Winds clocked as high as 32 mph and gusts of up to 70 mph descended upon the fairgrounds after 10 a.m., causing one large tent to collapse and damaging a number of carnival game tents. Despite the high winds, no serious damage was reported.

Davis said the weather, which came during livestock events at the fair, forced a pause in the events for about 15 minutes.

“We’re just happy that nobody got injured,” Davis said.

Moderate damage was reported throughout Vermilion County as the line of storms stretching from north of Iroquois County to south of Edgar County rolled through the region. The weather prompted an hour-long weather warning for Vermilion County.

Wind gusts as high as 60 mph in Catlin, 65 mph in Sidell and up to 70 mph in Hoopeston and Danville were reported to the National Weather Service in Lincoln following the morning weather. The storms also dropped just under an inch of rain, according to Vermilionweather.com.

Weather alert sirens were set off in Hoopeston after weather spotters reported seeing rotation in the area. Hail was also reported with a smaller storm earlier Tuesday morning in Danville, Catlin and Rankin.

The high winds resulted in a number of damage reports, including structural damage to the FMC building in Hoopeston. A number of trees and limbs were reported in Danville as well as throughout the county.

AmerenIP reported more than 1,000 people across the county without power, including around 600 in the Danville area. A little more than 800 people remained without power as of late Tuesday afternoon.

Bob Scott, service and operations manager for the City of Danville, said the wind took out a few utility poles in addition to trees and limbs. Crews were out all day dealing with the damage.

A total of three trees and one partial tree on North Jackson Street had to be cleared away by city crews. In addition, 12 large limbs also had to be removed from the street.

Scott said one tree on Douglas provided an extra hurdle for crews after a nest of bees was discovered inside. A hive expert was called in to handle the bees while the branch was removed. Scott said only one man was stung.

Scott said he expected city workers to continuing cleaning up from the storm today and possibly into Thursday.

The weather also started transformer problems along Voorhees Street and in the 900 block of West Fairchild Street.

Because of the timing of the storm, the county’s emergency management agency rescheduled the weather warning sirens. A new date for the monthly test, usually conducted the first Tuesday of each month, was not immediately released.

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