Tornado Hit us again

[Dozernut]

A storm rolled in on the 15th, I was standing in the yard watching it when I heard the familiar freight train rumble. Then I saw a tornado funnel briefly touch down in the field SW of our house then it lifted back up. The wife and I ran for shelter to ride it out. The twister went over the house and we heard a lot of crashing along with the roaring. It lasted maybe 10 seconds but seemed longer, I guess fear slows down time. After we survived this one we went to survey the damage. It looked like bomb had hit, we had trees and huge limbs down every where. luckily the house and machine shed were spared but the tool shed was speared by a falling branch. The electricity was out, the drive and the road were blocked with fallen trees.
A young Amish man, one of our neighbors, ran to our house to check on us to see if we were unharmed then ran to check on the elderly couple across the road. No one was killed or injured in this storm but there was a lot of property damage with some animals killed. The turkey farm north of us had the roof torn off of one barn and the wall torn out of another. Another neighbor to the east had four sheds destroyed and the poultry and rabbits in them were killed. His house and new garage was left untouched.
We got the generator out and fired it up and plugged in the the refrigerators, freezer and a few fans to fight the summer heat. Camping lanterns provided us with light after dark and the gas grill cooked our meals.
We have been working till dark the last two days cleaning up and have several day more of work. We finally got the power back on late yesterday afternoon and starting to get a semblance of normality to our lives.
The funny thing about this twister is that 7-8 years ago a tornado took out our orchard, we are down to four trees and the orchard was completely untouched. It laid the bridge to the one of the islands on its side, bent the post to the bird house in the orchard and took out trees beside it.
Without electricity and working till dark we have not been able to tell our story until now. A few pictures of some of the damage. The fourth picture is of a large Black Oak that was uprooted The root ball was 10' tall. The Amish came and cut it up and they are going to use it to heat their school house. I have to go now and put some hours in with the chainsaw and the tractor.

 

[dave1949]

Sorry to hear that, glad you are not injured. Close call. Don't do yourself in trying to do all the clean up. Take a break.
Dave.

 

[mmurphy]

Sorry about your unwelcome guest. At least you are safe and house is alright.

 

[MossRoad]

Hey, at least no one was hurt and most of your property survived. :thumbsup: It can always be much worse when it comes to mother nature. Glad you are O.K. Take your time with the clean up and don't get too stressed out. Take a lot of breaks and drink plenty of water. Also, be sure to eat right. A lot of folks get focused on the clean up and forget to feed and rest their bodies. Two days later they are burned out and weak.

 

[jayste]

Glad to hear that all is well now. Sounds as if you guys faired pretty good considering. Like others said, take it easy and pace yourself on the clean up efforts.

 

[jlrsn]

I'm real glad that you and your family escaped injury or worse. I've lived for 50+ years in earthquake country and a few in hurricane country but as far as I'm concerned there is nothing worse than a tornado!!
Good luck,
Jim

 

[jinman]

Lots of storms this spring are doing isolated damage from either heavy flooding or wind and tornadoes. I'm glad everyone is okay and sorry for your losses.

My SIL and grandkids were just in So. IL for a relative's wedding. I was surely worried about them when I saw storms moving that way, but they all returned home safely yesterday.

 

[Steve_Miller]

Glad you're OK, thanks for the photos.

Steve

 

[Thomas]

Dang,glad everyone healthy...try and pace yourself.
Been one heck of year coast to coast.

 

[crusty 1]

Glad it turned out good for you.I,m sittin on pins and needels here in n.Mn. right now the weather is gettin ugly.Tornados headed this way I guess so I may shut this down for the night and get my puch and grab a beer and go down under.Good night all.:thumbsupave

 

[Dozernut]

crusty 1 am hoping that you make it thru unscathed and the storms miss you and yours, hang in there property is not important, loved one are.

Thanks everyone for your support and well wishes. We are fine, a little tired but we had to clean up the danger spots, downed trees propped up on other trees, the widow makers and access for us and any emergency service we may need. We are now slowing down and prioritizing what we need to do right away and what can wait.
The tornado traveled from SW to NE and really wrecked several homes and farms. We (the neighbors and I) have been helping each other out when we can. We are doing fine but the land will never be the same as it was, the twister really changed the landscape where it traveled. This is our second tornado that touched down and caused damage.

There were multiple twisters that set down in my county. No injuries or deaths, but the all the gas stations raised the price of fuel 30 cents instantly. So people needing fuel for generators, tractors, chainsaws and vehicles had to pay the higher prices, talk about greed and profiting from a disaster.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[deere755]

I just saw your post for the 1st time tonight. I am glad to hear you are ok. Are you in the Peoria area? My B-I-L was passing thru Elmwood the other evening and saw a tornado on the ground. He was on his way to Iowa. He said it scared him to death. We have been real luckey this year with bad weather in this part of Illinois. We did take a lighting hit last Sunday. Knocked out our Dish and our phone. Bad part was we switched form Direct tv to Dish on Friday and Dish was back out on Monday replacing it all.

 

[schmism]

what part of IL?

 

[jimmyj]

Glad you are ok. Sorry to hear about the damage. Surely the odds are in your favor now not to get hit again!

 

[Dozernut]

Been away from the computer, just now saw these replies. We are in S. E Illinois about 45 miles S.W. of Terre Haute, IN. It could have been a lot worse if it had not lifted.

 

[keegs]

This winter's fuel for heating.