Tornado Stories

Several '58s who live in Springfield have sent me reports of tornado damage in their neighborhoods or around town. C. E. Welch says "Wabash, North Street, Isles Park, Bergen Park, & Dirksen Parkway between South Grand and Clear Lake really bad--no WTAX tower--"

Judy Vicars Van Hagen writes: "I was lucky enough to be spared any trouble with the first two tornados, and the third storm hit my neighborhood, but only with torrential rain and high straight line winds; no injuries and no damage. I spent a lot of time in the basement with a battery operated radio and my three little dogs while the storms came and went, two being tornados. Luckily, radio station WMAY stayed on the airwaves with an emergency generator all night long, keeping us updated with exactly what was going on and when each storm was coming and where it was headed. WTAX had lost its broadcasting ability with the first tornado and still isn't up and broadcasting as of Tuesday."

She also notes that some 400 electric poles are down, live wires are on the ground, and most stop lights are out. "Many, many businesses along Wabash were demolished. The Barrel Head is gone, Capitol Illini Veterinary Clinic suffered terrific destruction, the list goes on and on. Those streets are actually closed at this point. The businesses in Parkway Point were hit really hard and the motels in that area lost parts of their buildings."

Carolyn Baldwin Quinlan confirms that news with a story about her husband, Ed Quinlan: "Ed had a problem here at home with the heat while I was gone, and checked into the Fairfield Inn. He was dozing on the bed in his third floor room when the window blew in. He ran into the hall and down to one end, but it was blocked by debris, so he ran to the other end and had to almost crawl down the side of the building to get out. I drove by there today and the whole end of the motel is gone. Ed went back yesterday, and they let him get his stuff. He protested because he didn't get his Continental breakfast yesterday morning. Anyway, he is ok, still a bit shook up."

The SJR reports today that 1,548 homes are damaged. No deaths resulted from the storm. One sad note is that many thousands of century-old trees have been lost. The above picture, by Daniel Souther of Springfield, appears in "Storm reader pics gallery #2" at the SJR site. The WMAY site has also published more storm photos.