Tornado hit close to home
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Less than 100 meters from my house, actually. There was some moderate to severe damage to homes one street east of us and the next block over.
http://www.pjstar.com/article/20131117/NEWS/131119271
No one was hurt, no damage to my house. Some of my neighbors were not so lucky. So far, there are reports of only one fatality from the tornadoes.
Guess where I live!Pekin also set a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew for areas north of Sheridan Road to Velde Drive.
Here are some pics I took around town while my stepson and I were going around to see if anyone needed help cleaning up.
http://s24.photobucket.com/user/jarink/library/2013%20Tornado -
The red line is the approximate path of the tornado. It skipped the lake to the northeast and came back down in another neighborhood. My house is the blue dot.
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Good that you are OK Jim, the same storm front hit us, causing major disruption, mainly "black outs".
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Thanks, guys!
Update: Incredibly, the power is back on at our house tonight. I figured it would take at least a week and they did it in just over 2 days. Everything looks to be pretty much back to normal in our home.
Elsewhere in the area, things are still far from over. I spent half they day yesterday helping my dad and some others cut up a good sized tree that had fallen in my aunt's yard. From her backyard, I could see at least a dozen houses that had missing roofs.
Some photos taken by a neighbor who lives two doors down from me. Many of the pictures are within a block of my house.
http://blogs.pjstar.com/eye/2013/11/17/tornado-hits-pekin/
When he mentions that it hit way too close, he wasn't kidding. his house is right behind the fence on the left edge of this photo.
We had it easy compared to Washington, just a few miles north of us. I'm sure most of you in the US have probably seen some news reports of it, but what was estimated as an EF-2 tornado here in Pekin turned into an EF-4 monster that literally took out a chunk of the town.
More of Fred's photos; these are all of Washington.
http://blogs.pjstar.com/eye/2013/11/18/aerial-views-of-tornado-destruction-from-washington-to-pekin/
Times like this really restore my faith in the basic goodness of people. Within minutes of the tornado passing, people were out on the streets, making sure their neighbors were safe or at least accounted for. Cleanup started within an hour, people dragging trees and debris out of the streets, directing traffic and doing what we could. There were so many chainsaws running, you'd swear it was a lumberjack convention. Some people not physically able to help clean up offered to watch over kids and pets, fix food, or bring drinking water. Sunday night our neighbors offered us to plug into their generator since we didn't have one, just to make sure we at least had a couple of lights.
Today they revised the official damage estimates to just over 100 homes damaged in Pekin (about 50 are uninhabitable) and nearly 1,000 homes in Washington. I know of at least 5 of my co-workers whose homes were completely destroyed and a few others belonging to friends or their families. AMAZINGLY, there was only a single confirmed death from this storm. I've heard story after story (my family included) where people got the alarm barely minutes before the tornado came through. Just enough time to get to shelter.
I'll close tonight by once again thanking you for your concern for me and my family. I'd like to ask you all to please consider donating time or money to organizations like the American Red Cross or any groups that provide disaster relief where you live. They truly provide help and hope where there can seem to be none. -
