Strong winds which raked Illinois and Indiana this (Wednesday) evening have left behind a trail of damage and power outages. Most of that damage involved trees, limbs or power poles that were blown over. But in some areas, including Danville, damage was reported to the roofs of some homes and other buildings. There was also some large hail and locally heavy rain.
The Vermilion County Emergency Management Agency reported the strong winds destroyed a shed southwest of Georgetown. Vermilion County EMA reported wind gusts of 61 miles per hour. In Edgar County peak winds were clocked at 64 miles per hour.
Some semi tractor trailers were blown over along Interstate 57, and the highway was going to be closed until crews had a chance to clear the wreckage.
The National Weather Service Office in Lincoln also received reports of some damage to roofs on Bensyl and Emerson Streets in the Danville area, and in the 100 block of North Walnut in Danville. We received no reports of any storm-related injuries in our area.
Crews from Ameren and other utility companies were busy working on restoring power to thousands of customers across central Illinois.
Wednesday’s high temperatures had reached the low-80s in the Danville area, but the strong cold front is leaving much cooler weather behind it. Thursday’s high temperatures are only expected to reach the upper 40s.
{The photo shows a tree that fell on a swimming pool in Danville Wednesday evening (April 8, 2020).}
