Thank you Barb. I grew up across the river and we seemed to have severe storm damage all around where we lived almost every Spring or Fall or both. We never had any damage to our house, but neighbors and homes on the street behind us did. And too many to count within a mile radius. I only recall one death through any of the "close" storms. That was a girl walking home from school that was picked up on one side of the street and thrown into a house on the other side. These storms, when I was young, probably turned me into the amateur meteorologist that I think I am.
Six deaths with this storm (and counting) is kind of a shock. People just working and then...
Ed,
The storms that rolled through here were not the same "long track" tornado that hit Arkansas/Tennessee/Kentucky with so much death and destruction. That one looks horrific and will probably go down as a record for the longest single track. The storms by me were part of a line that moved up from southwest Missouri (as do most of our storms). Something about Interstate 44 (the old Route 66). We had been watching likely tornadoes on radar bouncing in and out as the system moved in from mid-Missouri. There were confirmed reports and significant damage 2 counties over. EF3-4 damage. Several homes wiped off their foundations. One death in an older couple whose house is completely gone in St Charles County, MO. They were found in a field 300 ft away. The wife died at the hospital.
The timing and path for the tornado that hit near me could be the same as the one to the west, but likely was just another spinup from the same storm, but probably not the same actual tornado, like in AR/TN/KY. The storm to the west was on radar after it hit in St. Charles County, but no damage for 50 miles. It faded off the radar for 10-15 miles and then was obvious again just after it crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois. The warehouses are about 8 miles from the river. The ground path near here is less than 2 miles long. Then nothing.
I remember the big Alabama storm in 2011. No doubt there are areas that will never fully recover. Kind of like places in New Orleans from Katrina. If you know where to look, it is still there. Three months after we moved to Edwardsville, 40 years ago, there was a tornado that hit main street in downtown. It took the front facades off about a dozen buildings. All the buildings were repaired. Some with replacement bricks to match the 100 year old structures. Quite a few with metal fronts or stucco or something else that wasn't turn of the century typical. Today, it just looks like different aesthetics remodeling over the years, but it all goes back to that 1981 tornado.
Here's an example. This is only a couple of blocks from me now. The courthouse is to the left of this pic.
Left to right- Schwartz's Drug (law firm now)- All new front; white front with 2 small windows is a metal façade; green upper (Imber's and MoJo's Music) lost a little of the molding at the top, but mostly no damage; flat front, three story Bigelo's Bistro- complete new concrete façade. The entire front of the building was torn off.
The 1800's courthouse across the street had almost no damage. It's also made out of huge granite blocks.
Here's the court house right across the street.
j
