Damage assessments continue as the cleanup efforts continue from Thursday evening’s severe storms in our area. A Danville church and park were among the areas that suffered extensive damage.
(A crane reaches across part of Central Christian Church to remove debris from a courtyard Friday.)
A huge red oak tree estimated to be 150 years old, fell on the church along North Vermilion Street in Danville. Herb Simmons described the situation during an interview with CIMG News…
{AUDIO: “The situation here was a large red oak collapsed (and) fell on a common area and courtyard – probably 150 years old, plus. Had to come and get her off of here. It took two cranes. We’ve been here about eight hours and we’re wrapping-up within the next hour or so.”}
Simmons Tree Service of Catlin and Klugow Tree Service of Westville teamed to complete the cleanup. Simmons said the church was fortunate because things could have been worse…
{AUDIO: “It fell midway in between the main areas of the church – area that’s basically a pass-thru to get from one side to the other. Nobody was hurt. Nobody was here. So best-case scenario for where it fell.”}
Simmons added the clean-up required heavy equipment….
{AUDIO: “Basically we have two cranes here which we used to pick this red oak out of the center common area. Due to the heavy weight we needed two trucks, so that’s how we were able to do this job safely and efficiently.”}
Late Friday there were still around 4,000 customers without power in Vermilion County. Earlier in the day that number had been 10,000. Ameren Illinois’ center along route one south of Danville has been a very busy place since the storms hit as crews from outside the Danville area were called in to help restore power.
There was also extensive damage to numerous large trees at Danville’s Lincoln Park.
(Large trees were damaged or destroyed throughout the park.)
One house near Lincoln Park was heavily damaged when a large tree fell on it. And numerous large trees were snapped like toothpicks in the high wind. Many of those trees were estimated to be more than 100 years old. Lincoln Park has downed trees and limbs scattered around the park…including the Friendly Town Traffic Safety Education Center.
Fortunately, though, the new classroom at Friendly Town, escaped serious damage.
