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In all, the National
Weather Service recorded 13 tornadoes associated with this storm
system, 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 Saturday 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 Aug. 19, 2009, that
Beason was near the end of a 24.5-mile trail made by an F3 tornado
that 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 affected, with nine farmsteads gone from
that tornado.
This past Friday weather forecasters issued a warning of
potential for severe weather on Saturday evening. It was about 10
p.m. when 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 1/2-hour period. Some areas
witnessed little but the ample lightning displays that accompanied
the system.
Specialists in the 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 was watched extra carefully,
as it had a large number of supercells 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 affected areas near
Canton, Peoria, San Jose, Hopedale, Hartsburg, Emden, Miner,
Farmington, Atlanta and Beason. There were isolated reports of high
winds, heavy rain and hail. Another significant feature of this
storm was the volume of lightning produced, particularly from Peoria
moving southeast through Tazewell County. A tornado was reported on
the ground one mile southeast of Hopedale. Forty-five minutes later
the tornado went through near Beason.
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Elmwood, a northwest suburb of Peoria, was the hardest hit. The
business district, composed mostly of older buildings, had
significant damage, 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.
(See
report by the National Weather Service for locations of
tornadoes followed by pictures.)
(See detailed
locations.)
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Past related articles
Photo by Jarod Cook near Abingdon |
