Saturday night was expensive

[Don_Papenburg]

Last saturday at about 9:40 pm My grandfathers farm was hit by a tornado .  My brother lives there now . He called us to tell us that the barn was gone the machine shed and a grain bin were smashed and the garage was twisted. .  Sunday I was looking at the paths of junk , this storm had two tornadoes . one took out the barn that was built in 1905 had a easterly track moving slightly north.  The other had a southeasterly track , it took out the grain bin .This storm storm started around Henery Illinois , started its damage in Magnolia and staying on the ground bounced into Streator just east of our grandfathers farm . Exiting Streator  it hit my neighbors farm then another and then Gandfathers farm . Passing my farm just on the north side of the roar and then the Missal elevator got one large grain bin damaged  . The storm headed east past Blackstone taking out about five high power transmission towers. . It then hit Dwight on to Hopkins Park and on toward Indiana .  That is as far as I have heard of its movement. We have been very busy cleaning up trash this week and will have a few more weeks to go . Would have rather been doing other things .  But I now have a pile of fuel for the oven that will last for years.Hope you all had a better week . Don

[trim4u2nv]

I was just drove through saint anne and aroma park.  Looks like it touched down right on route 1 and leveled a house on the west side and stripped the roof and siding on the house on the other side of the road.   The golf course west of there is supposed to have uprooted trees as well.  The Alexander lumber yard was tore up also in dwight and some boxcars were derailed.  Didn't have time to drive out to dwight.  Somebody told me it hit hard there.

[Don_Papenburg]

That house on Route1 was a friend of the guy that runs the foundry in St Anne.   I heard that t he storm continued on past Dwight  from a trucker that lived in Reddick . He told me that it hit around StAnne So I called John at CanDo foundry.  He told me about the house . and that it hit a few small towns to the east.   

[trim4u2nv]

We have a barn 20 miles north near momence and a building south near watseka.  We were lucky this time.  Last time it ripped all the barn doors off, but the barn survived.   Hopkins park (due east) also had about a dozen homes/trailers damaged.  This area is mostly dirt roads and possibly the poorest community in the state.

[Warbird]

Sorry to hear that, Don but glad none of your family was hurt.

[Don_Papenburg]

Thanks WB ,  I can't belive how much work we have done and still do not have the barn site cleaned up yet.  We did get a lot of the yard cleared of damaged trees and picked up most of the junk from the fields in the path .  We have a Morton building  that needs to be torn down and either fix or rip down the two car garage that my dad built.  It is twisted abit.  the south wall is all but gone .  I think that the only thing that saved it from collapse is the fact that he ran the wall studs up to the tops of the trusses and bolted the top and bottom cord to the studs.     Back to picking up .  Don't let your buildings get in the way of a tornado,it ain't fun.

[Brad_bb]

Well, that stinks.  I guess the race is on to see who can get it cleaned up first.  Sounds like an opportunity to Build a new barn.  Hey you can consider re-purposing an old barn.  Take one down that someone doesn't want, fix what needs fixin',  modify what you need to modify to suit your needs and re-raise it on your property.  Let us know when the raising is so you'll have volunteers to help raise.

[Don_Papenburg]

There is no repurposing this barn ,unless you were in the toothpick bizz.