Storm Damage - check out these pics!

[BTM]

Setup:about a month ago the area around Southern Illinois had a HUGE storm, we're talking 100 mile an hour winds (yes, that's ONE HUNDRED), a bit of hail, lots of damage, tons of trees fallen/uprooted, lots of power lines down, you name it.  It took several weeks for some areas to get power again, and there's still spots where they're fixing damage.  Well, when I went to work shortly after the storm hit, I figured there would be something stuff to photograph afterward, so I took my camera along with me.

This is some of what I saw...

Pretty standard after the storm, a tree fallen up against a trailer.


Trees snapped like tooth pics!


Uprooted!



Can you just IMAGINE how strong those winds would have to be to uproot a big tree like that?



I think this used to be a carport.



From this angle it doesn't look so bad...



Oh, snap!

Also, you see that empty white square in the background?  There used to be a billboard in there...

Anyway, I took several other shots, and maybe I'll post them later, but I thought you guys would like to see these...

[Andrew]

It's funny how small the real root system is on such a large tree, isn't it?  Those are some cool pictures.  With 100 mph winds, you start seeing some real damage.  We've had 70 mph around here in the past few months.  That caused some damage, but once you get to the wind velocity you had out there the damage starts getting really noticeable.

I was surprised that the one shed didn't get moved much (your bottom photo).

[Torgo]

Cool pics! I hope that no one was hurt during that particular storm.

I live in VA and we've been having some really bad storms popping up over the last few weeks. In fact a tornado touched down a couple of weeks ago at Smith Mountian Lake in VA!  It blew a boat off of a dock and turned a boat in the water completely upside down.  It's really odd for us to get this type of tornadic activity in our state but the weather's been crazy lately.

Lots of rain, strong winds and violent lightning.

[The Burgomaster]

After looking at the fallen trees, I started looking at the houses and grassy fields.  This looks like a peaceful, quiet, relaxing area to live (other than the storm, of course).

[trekgeezer]

We had a system come down from Kansas and Oklahoma last Friday that had 75-80 MPH winds out ahead of it.  It blew  five cars of a train off the tracks in Atkins, AR.

It just skirted where I live, one of my neighbors had a Bradford pear tree split in half.

[The Burgomaster]

We had a system come down from Kansas and Oklahoma last Friday that had 75-80 MPH winds out ahead of it.  It blew  five cars of a train off the tracks in Atkins, AR.

Reportedly, Michael Bay heard about this and is already working on a script . . . 

[Javakoala]

We had a system come down from Kansas and Oklahoma last Friday that had 75-80 MPH winds out ahead of it.  It blew  five cars of a train off the tracks in Atkins, AR.

Reportedly, Michael Bay heard about this and is already working on a script . . . 

Not enough explosions.  Ooh, and there'd have to be a high-speed car chase DURING the high winds.


Nah, I still wouldn't want to watch it.

[BTM]

Cool pics! I hope that no one was hurt during that particular storm.

Well, only one person was killed during the storm, it was an elderly man who, IIRC, got hit on the top of the head by something that was damaged inside his house, the blow didn't kill him, but it caused him to fall down his steps onto the concrete of his basement. 

As with most storms, more people were hurt during the CLEANUP phase of the storm that the actual storm itself (chainsaw injuries, falls from ladders, stuff like that.)

[BTM]

Oh, forgot to mention the craziest (well, one of them anyway) thing I saw during this whole incident.  On Saturday I had asked off work so I could go to my parents house (they were having a graduation party for my oldest niece).  On the way there, the street leading to their house was blocked off by a fallen tree, so I took a shortcut through the parking lot of the church that's right next to the street.  As I drove through the lot I looked and saw that the tree had fallen ON TOP of some power lines.  It hadn't broken them mind, but it was freaking pulling them down to the street.  The sight reminded me of those old Warner Brothers cartoons, you know where some character gets tossed into the air, they hit some power lines, the lines (and the poles they're connected to) arch backward like a sling shot and then throw the unfortunate victim forward?  That's pretty much what it looked like. 

I just HAD to stop and take some pictures of this before going to the party.  I think they turned out okay, but not sure if they fully conveyed the craziness of the situation.  I mean, I really needed something like a wide angle lens to capture the whole scene.  Even with the photostitch option (which allows you to take one picture, then displays that picture so you can "match up" a second picture to add onto it), I don't think I quite got it all.

Oh, and how about another pic to help but all this in perspective?  Here's one I took at the park of a fallen tree being examined by the nine year old daughter of one of my co-workers.

Neat, huh?