HAMILTON CO., Ill. - Among the many devastating things that occurred in yesterday's windstorm that blew through the area mid-afternoon was the tragic death of a Hamilton County man in a freak traffic accident.
Authorities say that Tim Thomas, 55, of rural McLeansboro, was westbound on the Blairsville Blacktop north of the Thackeray area of Hamilton County when, in the vicinity of Beaver Creek Elementary School, a heavy wind gust hit and took down a series of power poles - seven in all.
One of those poles came down on the cab of Thomas' pickup, killing him.
The incident occurred about an hour after heavy wind gusts blew over a semi rig on U.S. 50 outside of Noble in Richland County (below), which was about the same time strong winds in Harrisburg took down power lines and even a couple of weak trees, according to the Street Department, some of whom were busy hauling trunks and branches out late into the afternoon.
It was an Ed Lewis truck; the driver is reported to be okay.
Heavy wind gusts also created havoc in the city of Olney, where a metal roof was blown off at least one resident in that city, and other damage was reported.
Photo submitted by a reader
In the city of Mt. Carmel, trees downed power lines on outer Second Street and damaged some homes when they fell.
According to the measuring devices at the Harrisburg-Raleigh Airport, one gust reached 44 mph, but it's estimated that some of the more damaging gusts outside of that area reached nearly 70 mph.
From the Harrisburg-Raleigh Airport yesterday
Interestingly, when the Fujita Scale (which measures damage that different wind levels can do) was "enhanced" some years ago, a little EF-0 equaled 65 to 85 mph winds. These winds being considered in the Fujita Scale are vortex, however: Tornadic. The ones that occurred yesterday were considered "straight line," NOT vortex. Straight-line winds have done an incredible amount of damage in recent years since treelines that once served as wind blocks across some of the flatter areas of southern Illinois have been taken out, the price of farmland and subsidies being offered being the motivating factor in creating larger tracts of land...thus inadvertently producing hazards like those that were seen yesterday.
Another point of interest: The 1925 Tri-State Tornado, which Ang wrote a book about several years ago, actually traveled across the Blairsville-Thackeray area of Hamilton County on March 18, 1925....very near the area where Thomas' tragic accident occurred.
Submit your photos of the wind damage here or at the Facebook page...and leave your comments as to how yesterday's weather affected YOU.
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