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In all, the National Weather Service recorded 13 tornadoes with
at least four making the ground in central Illinois. No major
injuries or deaths were reported at this location or any other in
central Illinois from last night’s storms.
This is the second time in less than a year that a tornado has
struck the same area near Beason. It was nearing 4:30 p.m. on
Wednesday, August 19, 2009 that Beason was near the end of a 24.5
mile trail made by an F-3 tornado which had begun at Williamsville
and stayed on the ground 42 minutes tracking the entire width of
Logan County. Several Beason farmsteads were among the 35 farms were
affected, with nine farmsteads gone from that tornado.
This past Friday weather forecasters issued a forewarning of
potential for severe weather on Saturday evening. It was about 10
p.m. their predictions started coming true in this area. The first
tornado was recorded to the west near Abingdon in Knox County at
7:35 p.m. Beason was the last reported as the storms rambled and
skipped over and through during a 3 ½ hour period. Some areas
witnessed little but the ample lightning displays that accompanied
the system.
Specialists in NWS office in Lincoln tracked the storms by radar and
provided advanced communications to Emergency Managers throughout
central Illinois.
The system that came out of the west and was watched extra
carefully, as it had a large number of super cells and hooks with
the potential to develop into tornadoes.
Weather spotters were called into action and sirens were set off in
many communities. Spotters witnessed cloud rotation, shelf and wall
clouds and several tornadoes, including a couple in Logan County as
the storms moved across central Illinois.
The most damaging portions of the storm impacted areas near Canton,
Peoria, San Jose, Hopedale, Hartsburg, Emden, Miner, Farmington and
Atlanta and Beacon. There were isolated reports of high winds, heavy
rain and hail reported. Another significant feature of this storm
was the volume of lightning produced particularly from Peoria
moving southeast through Tazewell A tornado was reported on the
ground 1 mile southeast of Hopedale. Forty-five minutes later the
tornado went through near Beason.
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A northwest suburb of Peoria, Elmwood was the hardest hit. The
business district, composed mostly of older buildings, had
significant damages with the second floor of many of those buildings
damaged, destroyed or removed by the tornado. Numerous houses and
buildings in the area were damaged. Roofs were torn off, one
building collapsed, cars were overturned, trees uprooted. There was
major damage to the movie theater, tree limbs and debris littered
the streets and power lines were downed.
In all, the National Weather Service recorded 13 tornadoes
associated with this storm system.
[See report by the National Weather Service for locations of
tornadoes followed by pictures]
[See detailed locations]
LDN]
Past related
articles:
Photo by Jarod Cook near Abingdon, IL |
