Happy Anniversary

Who here remembers the inland hurricane that hit the area last year? It happened one year ago today.

(photos from TheTelegraph.com)

"Storms pummel area
By CYNTHIA M. ELLIS and STEVE WHITWORTH, The Telegraph
07/20/2006

Powerful storms swept through the St. Louis region Wednesday evening, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power, downing numerous trees and utility lines, and snarling traffic on major highways.

Among the damage in The Telegraph’s coverage area, part of the roof was blown off the Ivy Heights Church of God in Wood River, and fire destroyed Cain’s Bedding Inc., 700 N. Delmar Ave., in Hartford. No injuries were reported initially in the immediate Alton area.

The storms moved in quickly from north to south, bringing wind gusts reportedly up to 80 mph. Trees were blown down all over the area, many taking power lines with them, interrupting service to residential and business customers all over the greater St. Louis region.

Utility officials said more than 260,000 customers were without power as of 9 p.m.

The Alton Fire Department was kept busy for several hours, responding to calls of power lines arcing and possible structure fires.

Deputy Fire Chief Greg Bock said the department responded to some 50 calls as of 9:30 p.m., and the Alton Police Department had responded to perhaps three times as many as that. He said the city had “numerous energized power lines” down, and firefighters and police were watching them to make sure they didn’t spark any more fires.

“There are more electric lines down still energized than we could count,” Bock said. “Pockets all around the city still have no power. It’s chaotic everywhere.”

A house across the street from the Fire Department’s Station No. 2 on College Avenue suffered some of the worst damage in Alton, Bock said. He said a tree fell and landed on top of the house.

“The tree went through the house from front to back,” he said, noting that a female dental student who lives in the house had just left the bedroom and so avoided injury.

Bock said authorities in Godfrey and Wood River were busy with similar numbers of calls.

Read entire article here, on our old site.

I covered the aftermath the next day,

Neighbors helping neighbors
By LAURA GRIFFITH, The Telegraph
07/21/2006

WOOD RIVER -- With the power still out in about 98 percent of the city as of Thursday afternoon, residents of the close-knit neighborhood along Linton Street spent the day outside, cutting up fallen trees with chainsaws and helping one another any way they could.

Crystal Smith, 34, of the 100 block of Linton, cooked spaghetti and meatballs, hamburgers and chicken for her neighbors, including whatever was thawing in her freezer. "Whenever something bad happens, we all get together and help each other out," Smith said. "I can’t chainsaw, but I can cook."

Smith said she was thankful for her neighbors during the storm, when she sought shelter for her children, including her 8-year-old son, Michael, who uses a wheelchair. "We were all together, crammed in the bathtub," Smith said. Rather than staying there, the family ran next door to take refuge in a neighbor’s basement.

While Smith’s children experienced only the loss of their trampoline, others on the street were less fortunate. Mark Maberry, 48, of the 100 block of Linton, lost his 1995 four-wheel-drive Chevrolet pickup truck when a large tree was uprooted, toppled and smashed it completely. Maberry said he was just thankful the tree did not fall on his house. "The volume (of the damage) is tremendous," Maberry said.

Michelle Browder, 35, of the 200 block of Linton, originally comes from Chicago and was impressed with her neighbors’ behavior. "If something like that happened there, it would be everybody fend for their own," she said.

Browder lives in a house that her husband’s grandfather built, one of the first houses in the area long ago. While the original two-story house was leveled during a tornado in 1941, Browder was more fortunate this time around. Her house sustained no extensive damage.

Signs along Illinois Route 143 blew into the road. Near Shop ’n Save, a pickup truck camper lay in an adjacent field. Stoplights on Edwardsville Road (Route 143) in front of the grocery store were bent in the direction of the wind.

Farther east up Kendall Hill, falling branches pulled down a bright white privacy fence. Just east of the subdivision entrance, a large fallen tree limb blocked the westbound lane of Route 143.

Across from Belk Park on Rock Hill Road, corn was blown over in the fields, and one barn was destroyed.

One resident of Rock Hill Road, Armella Brugger, had one large tree that fell through her carport and several others that caused damage to her house, which was surrounded by trees. Her sister, Dorothy Brugger, was outside taking photos of damage to the carport, breezeway, bedroom, living room and greenhouse. "Every tree that was over here hit some part of the house," she said. "It’s going to take months and months to clean up."Most parts of the house remained dry, because the most extensive damage was to the garage, so its residents intend to stay."This place is so pretty," Dorothy Brugger said. "Almost like a park, until this comes along."

...

Today, the sky turned black and we we listened to the scanners, fearing a repeat of last year. It didn't happen, thank God.

So, until next time, we can enjoy lights at night, the warm glowy-glow of the TV, and cool air conditioning as much as we want. Except at The Telegraph, where the air conditioner, yet again, is broken. Yay for the weekend.