Southern Illinois had a terrible storm this afternoon with tropical storm strength winds. There were a few tornado sightings, but most of damage came straight line winds. There were sustained winds of 60 mph and gusts of 100 mph.
Many roads are closed, including I57, where overturned semi's and trees have the road blocked. Carbondale and Marion are impassable. Many buildings lost their roofs, including a school and a busy restaurant. Some buildings collapsed, especially pole-barn type buildings and mobile homes,and big trees are down everywhere. The ground was already saturated from the heavy rains we've been getting, they just came up by the roots. The damage has been compared to a catagory II hurricane.
Over 70,000 people in Williamson and Franklin counties are without power, including about half of our town (Benton). A friend across town just called to see if they could borrow our generator, as Amerin said it could be a week before they were back online.
Curfews have been set up and they're trying to keep people off the streets so emergency crews can work. The Red Cross will be here in the morning.
Thankfully, we are fine, aside from a few dead limbs that came down.