Damage at SDC?

[airtwardo 6]

Got a call from friends in the area this morning...

I heard a tornado went through the area last night,
six dead in Utica...just south of Ottawa.

Any word on the condition of the DZ?

Aircraft intact??

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[airtwardo 6]

UTICA, Ill. (April 21) -- Rescue workers used heavy equipment and shovels Wednesday to dig for people feared trapped in the basement of a tornado-flattened tavern where at least three others were killed.

State officials said a fourth person also died in north-central Illinois but no details were available. More tornadoes damaged towns in central Indiana, injuring at least five people, as thunderstorms rolled through the Midwest.

Five people were pulled alive from the rubble of Utica's Milestone Tap, and authorities believed as many as five others could still be inside. They said workers were frustrated by the century-old building's crumbling, unstable sandstone walls.

''We haven't had any communication with anyone for several hours, but we're still holding out some hope that we can find some people alive,'' LaSalle County Sheriff Tom Templeton said at a news conference early Wednesday.

Coroner Jody Bernard said she knew of three bodies found in the wreckage of the two-story building that housed the Milestone Tap, and said there could be more fatalities.

Bill Burke, director of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, and Tom Schafer of the Department of Public Health said there were four deaths in and around this community of about 1,000 residents some 90 miles southwest of Chicago.

Four others in the Utica area, including three children, were hospitalized, officials said.

Indiana officials were surprised by the storms, said Alden Taylor, a spokesman for the State Emergency Management Agency.

''It was warm, but those are what are called popcorn storms that will suddenly appear. It's very difficult to predict them,'' Taylor said.

Authorities said three to six people suffered minor injuries in Jamestown, Ind., northwest of Indianapolis, where about a dozen homes were damaged. The storm reportedly blew as many as four tractor-trailers rigs off highways.

More than 30 teenagers were attending a party in the Kokomo, Ind., Skating Arena when a tornado tore off the building's roof. Employees saw the twister approaching in time to give a warning, and no injuries were reported.

''You know the rides they have at amusement parks, where the roof raises and then drops like it's going to hit you? That's what it was like,'' said Jill Foster, sponsor of one group of skaters.

In Utica, dozens of buildings in a three- to four-block area were damaged, several of them collapsed in piles of brick and splintered wood, said state Trooper Tim Reppin.

''This would equate to what I saw in Plainfield 10 or 15 years ago,'' Reppin said, referring to the Aug. 28, 1990, tornado that killed 29 people and damaged more than 1,000 homes along a 16-mile path near Joliet.



Mervin Taylor had just finished rounding up his 22 head of cattle when the huge tornado barreled toward his home but took a left turn about a block away and headed for Utica.

''I didn't have time to be scared,'' the 72-year-old farmer said. His property wasn't damaged.

The storm also collapsed a drug store roof and destroyed at least one home in Joliet, a small city southwest of Chicago, and damaged about 60 homes and a bank in Granville, near Utica, officials said.

''It happened so quick, we just ran to basement,'' said Sam Zulbeari, whose Ali's Pantry Family Restaurant in downtown Granville escaped damage. ''We got scared a little bit, but we're lucky we didn't get hurt. ... It's just miserable.''

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[tigra 0]

As far as I know, everything is fine there.

I haven't heard anything, nor have I checked with anyone at SDC yet, but it looked like the storm passed just south of Ottawa. SDC is technically in unincorporated Dayton, a bit north of Ottawa. There were weather alerts all night showing the paths the storms were taking, and Ottawa looked just barely clear of it.

Only one twin otter is in town, and its kept inside the hangar, (a substantial building to say the least.) I was a little more worried about the campground since we have several semi permanent residents. They would have all gone to the basement of the hangar if the storm was passing over.

maura

[AggieDave 6]

Does this mean that SDC will have a "Return to Oz" boogie?

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[eeneR 1]

I talked to several people out there....and it passed overhead. The DZ is fine.....thank god

She is not a "Dumb Blonde" - She is a "Light-Haired Detour Off The Information Superhighway."
eeneR
TF#72, FB#4130, Incauto

[FallingILweenie 0]

Yeah, i was wondering too...

It brought back memories of about 5 years ago, when Archway Skydiving Center in Vandalia, IL was hit by a tornado, damaging the DZ hangar (a nearby storage shed-type thingy was picked up and hurled into the hangar), the cessna and the King Air. Scary stuff.

glad to hear that it seems all is OK.

[AndyMan 7]

Quote

I talked to several people out there....and it passed overhead. The DZ is fine.....thank god

I was worried this morning when I fired up my email, only to see two different "weekly updates" from the two chicago dropzones, both of which were in the path of two different storms.

Thankfully it seems like both got off a-ok.

_Am

__

You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.