The National Weather Service has detailed widespread storm damage along the Interstate 64 corridor across southern Illinois into southwest Indiana. Mt. Vernon and West Salem were particularly hard hit. The South Central Transit bus depot and office on the north side of Mt. Vernon sustained severe roof and structural damage. A brick building on the downtown square in West Salem collapsed as it was buffeted by severe winds. A study of damage in Wayne County was scheduled for Saturday.
The weather service office in Paducah says a study of the storm damage to determine if there was tornado activity is still pending. The thunderstorms developed early Thursday night in an unseasonably warm and humid environment. High temperatures soared into the middle and upper 70s with dew point temperatures climbing into the lower to middle 60s. The thunderstorms developed as a cold front approached the region from the west.
Ameren Illinois reports during the height of the outages in Jefferson County, 2,800 customers were without power in the Bluford, Mt. Vernon and Idlewood neighborhood with 1,350 in the Idlewood area alone. Toppled trees and limbs were the biggest factor for the outages in Jefferson County. As of 10:20 Thursday night, tree trimming crews were safely working in two locations to remove trees that were entangled in power lines.
A lightning strike to a piece of equipment was the cause of the outages in Bluford. Crews safely isolated the equipment to make the repairs and had everyone restored by 1:50 am.
Oil tank fire caused by lightning strike off Shanghai Road northwest of Kinmundy. Photo by Gaylan Gentry.
At the height of the severe storm activity, Ameren had 14,047 customers without power at 8:30 pm on Thursday. Collinsville was hit the hardest. At one point, nearly half the town was without power from severe weather that rumbled through.
Vice President of Electric Operations Luke Wollin says thanks to the support staff and crews hard work Thursday night and Friday morning as well as previous investments made to prepare power poles and power lines to withstand high winds, the majority of customer outages were restored as the sun came up Friday morning.
Tri-County Electric Cooperative reported 1,200 customers lost power in Jefferson County. 1,000 of those were the result of the Marlow Substation on the eastside of Mt. Vernon losing power as a result of supply line from Ameren going down. Another 200 customers mostly on the north side of Mt. Vernon also lost power. There were just a few outages reported in Washington and Marion Counties.
Damage to a barn a mile east of the South Central Transit building on the north side of Mt. Vernon. Photo by Cara Meigs-Hamson.
Trees down on driveway on Old Centralia Lane west of the South Central Transit Building. Photo by Amie Sanderson.
