Clean-up efforts are continuing after a powerful storm system blew through southern Vermilion County Tuesday morning. Strong winds and heavy rain accompanied the storm as it downed trees, limbs and power lines….and some power poles. But we received no reports of any injuries.
Vermilion County Emergency Management Agency Director Ted Fischer says the wind was clocked at 53 miles-per-hour at his office along Illinois route one, south of Danville. Just over a block away from that office an unoccupied mobile home was destroyed by fire during the storm. It is located in a mobile home park just off Spelter Avenue.
Robert Thomas lives across the street from where the fire occurred. ‘’The wind picked up and knocked a branch out of the tree onto the power lines, and that’s what arced the trailer to catch on fire,’’ said Thomas. ‘’The same way with that one over there. There’s another branch over there that fell in. I’m glad it fell this way instead of that way, because it would have cut their trailer in half,’’ added Thomas.
‘’Nobody lived in it. They were fixing it up to sell,’’ said Thomas when asked whether the mobile home that burned was occupied.
Firefighters from the Westville Area Fire Protection District received help from Georgetown, Catlin, Lynch and Tilton Fire Departments. There were no reports of any injuries.
Meanwhile, crews from Ameren, Duke Energy and other power companies in East Central Illinois and West Central Indiana were busy handling numerous calls for assistance. Vermilion County had been placed under a severe thunderstorm warning just prior to when the storm hit.
Citizens were being advised to use caution on area roads because some of them were flooded. In parts of the region there were downed trees, limbs or power poles blocking some roads. City, County, Township and State Department of Transportation crews responded quickly, though, to begin the cleanup after the storm hit.
