With up to 250 trees at Kickapoo State Park having been affected by last Thursday (June 11th) evening’s major storms, Illinois Department of Natural Resources officials are still looking around at what needs to be cleared and fixed. IDNR Site Superintendent Tim Edison says that first it was a matter of clearing the roads of natural hazards, and then prioritizing.
AUDIO: And then once we get the roads cleared, we’re going to start assessing everything else between the campground and the shelters. The concession area was hit pretty bad, so we’re also looking at that. (It’s) sort of a wait and see/hurry up and find out what’s really bad, versus what’s bad right now.
Edison said it’s difficult to say at this time how long it will take to finish the job.
AUDIO: (It’s) hard to estimate based on the size of some of these trees, and how the dirt was ripped up and the root balls are here. We’re looking at at least a couple weeks; and I would assume, probably, a couple months; before we can really get everything fixed to the best of our ability. There’s some hangers over the roads that aren’t necessarily safe; that we’re going to try to address as soon as we possibly can.
The National Weather Service has now determined there were two definite EF-1 tornadoes that struck parts of Vermilion County last Thursday evening.
