Inland Hurricane, Pittsburg, IL. May 8, 2009

Whoever heard of a hurricane in Southern Illinois? The storm that swept our region on May 8, 2009 is being described as such. It has been called an "inland hurricane", a "meso cyclone", "straight line wind", "severe thunderstorm" and even a "tornado". Whatever anyone wants to call it, it was certainly intense, a storm that will not be forgotten by the thousands of people affected by it.
Earlier in the day we had Tornado Warnings issued for our area but we were not worried, that is typical this time of year so after that system rolled through and another storm showed up behind it we figured we would be in for some more heavy rain and some strong wind but we were not prepared for what happened next.
As the storm got closer to our region in Southern Illinois we watched the radar on T.V. and the storm began to actually form an eye, just like a hurricane. At 1:47 pm we lost power, still not too worried I stood in the doorway and watched as the wind got stronger. When I heard a noise that sounded like a gunshot and realized that it was actually a large tree snapping I decided it might be time to take cover.
One of my daughters was at home with me at the time so we took the dogs and got into an interior closet of the house. I have only been scared of a storm twice in my entire life and this was one of them. I have never seen or heard anyting like it. As we were sitting in the closet the house was vibrating and shaking like it was going to fall in on us. It lasted about 30 min and seemed like forever. We later learned that winds reached 106 miles per hour.
Power was knocked out in several counties for days, as of today, May 14, several thousand people are still without electricity. Our power was finally restored on May 13 at about 4:30 pm.
We lived for days by candle light and kept the freezer, fridge and a few other essentials on by generator power
We were lucky, we did not sustain any real major damage but several others lost their houses, businesses and 1 lost his life. Businesses were closed for several days, curfews were instated, looting became a problem and basic necessities were hard to come by. 100 year old trees were uprooted, roofs were ripped off, cars were crushed under trees and power lines were down everywhere you looked.
But, the people of Southern Illinois stood together and helped each other through it all and things are starting to get back to normal now. There is still much work to be done but we will get there in time.
Originally 3 counties in Southern Illinois, Jackson, Williamson (where we are) and Franklin were declared disaster areas by Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, since then 2 more have been added, 5 counties devastated by the storm.
Here are some pictures of the damage that happened just on our property

East side of house, this is from a tree on the west side of the house! Heard it come across and thought the roof was blowing away.



My carport, or what was left of it! Galvanized steel and hundreds of bolts, twisted like it was a pipe cleaner.

It took out my Crab Apple Tree


Could have been worse, here is where it was originally!

Van is still there, as are the stakes that were 3 feet in the ground.


And this is all the damage it did to the van.



Notice around the fish pond, everything down except for Jesus!



Backyard, looks like Armageddon!

My daughter amidst the rubble.



My Granny Smith apple tree.


And my Flowering Pear




The deck, total chaos. At least the BBQ Grill made it! Unfortunetly, the wrought iron breakfast set did not.


However, a Tiki torch was left unaffected!


And, as I said, we really received minor damage compared to some, we still have a roof over our heads, many were not so lucky. Rick was at work when it hit as was our other daughter, our son was at school and thankfully none of them were injured and everyone made it home safely. We hope everyone that was affected is able to recover from this soon and would like to thank all of the crews that were, and are still out trying to clean up and restore power.
As of today we are back up and running at full capacity, we would like to thank all of our customers who were so patient for the delays in contact and shipping during our power outage and cleanup.
Debbie and Richard Winters
Owners
RadWrapz.com