Building collapses on man during storm

[May 16, 2007]  There was one reported injury from Tuesday's brief but powerful storm. The Williamsville Fire Department was called to extricate a man who was trapped when high winds collapsed the side walls of a building under construction. The building was in the 700 block of 200th Street, near the Sangamon and Logan County line. The man was taken to St. John's Hospital in Springfield.

Fifty-plus mph wind gusts, lots of lightning and heavy rain issued in the early afternoon thunderstorm. The storm came out of the southwest and struck the length of Logan County shortly after 1 p.m.

The storm was forecast to produce high winds due to the clear skies heating the ground in advance of it, and it did. In its aftermath, evidence indicated that a microburst with strong downwinds moved across the south side of Lincoln, Emergency Management Agency director Dan Fulscher said.

Fulscher said that they received reports of minor damage, mostly tree-related, and power outages in Lincoln. Assessments were being taken this morning of Memorial Park trees. A sheriff's department car parked at a residence was crushed by a tree.

Like some previous storms this year, this storm dissipated as it moved out of the county toward the northeast. Macon and DeWitt counties were not as affected by it as Logan County.

Balmy temperatures have been replaced by much cooler and drier conditions that are expected to stick around a few days. (See weather forecast.)

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