10/2/06 DISC: IL

[Danny Neal]

Well after being without power for 18 hours its now back on, my town dodged a bullet, no more than 3 miles west of me it turned from a tree graveyard to all out war zone......now i know some of you (names with held) "gurus" will "disagree" with me but for this part of the area some people lost almost everything valuable to them

The worst devastation was 3 miles to the west of me, and i have video of the light show, from all the arcing lines and transformers plus the cleaning up afterwards, (being a public safety official rocks!) in Hickory Hills right past the tollway power is STILL out and there are 5 houses still with pine trees on them.....from 95th street to 99th street just east of roberts rd it looks like a hurricane went through, there were some homes boarded up, others with crushed cars from falling trees, but the majority is trees and power poles snapped in half.....a normal 5 min drive took 40 mins, i spent most of the day helping whoever i could, throwing branches and sticks in the wood chippers(great business for them!) i didnt get a chance to go down to 110th where the buildings collasped, and part of the bridgeview fire station number 2 caved in. I think the NATIONAL weather service, i know a certain person who likes to act like hes a comedian but thats alright hes still cool i guess, did an excellent job and i think I did too as i was the only man on duty at station 1, flooding has subsided and most of the branches are off to the side of the road here in EP and Hometown.

During the height of the storm i measured 68 mph where i live and apparently upwards to 110 mph were in a narrow corridor from roberts road to the tri state tollway and i believe it......definately not a tornado the trees in oaklawn fell to the southeast the trees in hickory hills palos hills and bridgeview fell to the south and i havent looked in the forest preserves but im sure they fell to the southwest as the outflow and microburst spread along the leading edge of the storm. Conrady Jr high lost its roof and will miss 3 weeks of classes and im glad the janitor in the van that was flipped will be alright........

this season is flipped around here march and april up here were like sept and oct normally and now sept and oct is like march april should be, hey late severe weather is better than no severe weather!

ill try to figure out how to post video on a website so you all can see the destruction and the constant power flashes that lasted about 10-15 mins....

thanks for the read i know alot of you arent getting storms so this might temporarily stun the SDS

 

[Tony Lyza]

David Draun's northern IL storm deflector has been obliterated. Completely obliterated. We had peak winds of 60-70 MPH here, and the 45 MPH+ winds were nearly continuous for over a half an hour here. About 10-20mi east of here, another swath of extreme downburst/microbursts of 80-110 MPH struck Will County, producing intense damage to several farms. In Griffith, the town that borders Schererville to the NE, a gas station had its pumps ripped out by the wind. This was truly the worst storm to hit Chicago since the Lemont F3 of 1991.

 

[Danny Neal]

This storm reminds me of the July 20th 2003 storm.......move the damage from this storm 3 miles to the east and we have 7/20/03, my neighbors house was crushed by a tree and there were over 1000 trees down in my town alone.....although i would probably say this storm was just a tad bit worse than that one because this one exactly was much larger than i thought, i took another damage tour tonight and found from 87th street to 110th street and from cicero ave to la grange ave so thats 4 by 6 miles had numerous trees down but the most concentrated damage was in hickory hills and bridgeview from about 96th street and roberts road to 110th and harlem it looks like an F1 tornado had there been a tornado, its amazing though for people around here its a big deal and news coverage is on its 3rd day now, i cant imagine how it would be if another F-4 hit the same area like on april 21st 1967, if we thought this was bad just wait til something REAL devastating happens......The Nea....oh i mean National Weather Service has done a good job at flea markets around the area educating people and after something like this i think alot more people will take severe thunderstorm warnings more seriously. i feel for the kids that have to go to school an extra 3 weeks in the summer though haha

top 5 weather events on the southside that directly effected me

1. oct 2nd 2006
2. May 30th 2003 - 3 different supercells moved over southside
3. Aug 1st 2003 - golf ball hail and winds up to 70 at my house
4. May 24th 2004 - rotating wall cloud moved right over my neighborhood
5. July 20th 2003 - 1000 trees down in my town

i guess chicago isnt so bad if you have patience!!!

 

[Adam Lucio]

Ill never forget that night, Ive told everyone I know that ive only been chasing for about two years and those were the most intense winds i have experienced to date. Unfortunatley my video camera was out of commision [it got wet while filming a storm on the way to cedar point in ohio] So the footage i got was on my digital camera, and the power was out on the road [archer ave by the cemetarys] making it very hard to see the exact power of the wind. My friends live in the apartments on 95th and Kostner where 2 evergreen trees fell on them. The flag pole on my house was ripped off our awning, our lawn chairs thrown across the street, alleys flooded about 6 inches and numerous trees down. I would rate it the top storm to hit chicago in 06 for sure.

Do you recall the supercell event from July 21st 2004? It was another significant event that took place especially on the SW side of the city where i live, the tree infront of my house fell on my dads car that day and there was widespread damage across the area.

Ive got a myspace blog about it (the 10-2-06 event) here:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?f...&MyToken=51ad24ef-f44e-4044-8f19-338ae9e8c0e3

I also blogged about the July 04' storm as well. However its archived and may take some time to dig up.

 

[Danny Neal]

July 21st 2004, i do recall, again my power was knocked out for 2 days, the storm ripped my wooden fence out of the ground and threw it across the street and it destroyed my neighbors addition he was putting on....... those were the days huh? your friends live at 95th and koster??? wow thats a mile from my house haha small world

Ill never forget that night, Ive told everyone I know that ive only been chasing for about two years and those were the most intense winds i have experienced to date. Unfortunatley my video camera was out of commision [it got wet while filming a storm on the way to cedar point in ohio] So the footage i got was on my digital camera, and the power was out on the road [archer ave by the cemetarys] making it very hard to see the exact power of the wind. My friends live in the apartments on 95th and Kostner where 2 evergreen trees fell on them. The flag pole on my house was ripped off our awning, our lawn chairs thrown across the street, alleys flooded about 6 inches and numerous trees down. I would rate it the top storm to hit chicago in 06 for sure.

Do you recall the supercell event from July 21st 2004? It was another significant event that took place especially on the SW side of the city where i live, the tree infront of my house fell on my dads car that day and there was widespread damage across the area.

Ive got a myspace blog about it (the 10-2-06 event) here:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?f...&MyToken=51ad24ef-f44e-4044-8f19-338ae9e8c0e3

I also blogged about the July 04' storm as well. However its archived and may take some time to dig up.

 

[aaron.burkham]

i was in decatur at the time and alot of them are still powerless