Ameren Illinois and Tri-County Electric crews are continuing power restoration following a powerful line of thunderstorms that radar indicated at some locations contained 70 mile per hour straight winds.
In Marion County, the Centralia area, Sandoval-Junction City, Odin, and a rural area south of Salem appeared to be the hardest hit.
Odin Fire Chief Greg Smith says a large tree crushed a center part of a mobile home occupied by Salenna Star and her children in the 200 block of Lindell Avenue in the Royal Lake area south of Odin. Smith says everyone was able to climb out of the mobile home and went by private vehicle to the hospital for treatment.
In an area near Route 37 and England Road south of Salem, there were unconfirmed reports from firefighters of a tornado touchdown with debris underneath. There was considerable tree damage in the area stretching along Route 37 South and in the England-Summertime Road area. A few homes sustained damage from the falling limbs.
Centralia City Firemen responded to dozens of calls about downed power lines and in a few cases smoldering tree limbs set on fire by the live lines or falling across homes. No major damage or injuries were reported. All available city firemen were called in to assist. Centralia also called out three public works crews to help remove trees and tree limbs from the streets. All streets are reported open as of Sunday morning.
Centralia District Fire Chief Ross Boshera says they were called out to nine calls related to downed power lines with only of them involving a line down on a home on Geary Street north of Centralia. Another line fell onto the porch of a home in the 2000 block of Ross Road northeast of Centralia and was popping and cracking.
Sandoval Fire Chief Chad Parson says they were called to numerous trees down along with numerous power lines. Trees limbs went through the roofs of homes at Cedar and Scott and on Broadway as well as on Jefferson Street in Junction City. Fortunately there were no injuries. Almost all of Sandoval last power as a result of the main power line transmission poles snapping north of Sandoval on Pope Road. The storm did not hit as hard in Patoka and Patoka Firemen provided mutual aid to Sandoval in the three hours they were handling calls after the storm rolled through.
The City of Salem missed the brunt of the storm and the water plant only recorded 46-hundredths of an inch of rain. Much more fell on the south side of town. The Centralia Water Plant recorded 1.78 inches of rain, which also included some heavy rain that hit southern Marion County just after seven Saturday morning.
As of 8:30 Sunday morning, Ameren Illinois is still reporting more than 2,000 without power in Centralia, including some just southeast of town and others on the north side of Raccoon Lake. At one point last night, about 4,000 were without power. In Sandoval, 272 are still without power, down from 1,200 after the storm. Another 47 are still without power in Junction City. 134 are still without power in Hoffman.
Tri-County Electric reported 4,500 without power in Marion County following the storm. As of their final update Saturday night, 700 were still without power.
The storm dumped 46-hundredths of an inch of rain at the Salem Water Plant, with higher amounts on the south side of Salem. The Centralia Water Plant recorded 1.78 inches of rain, which included some heavy rain just after seven Saturday morning from a different storm system.
We’ll continue to update this story. If you have storm damage info or photos, we would appreciate you sharing with us. The e-mail address is news@wjbdradio.com.
