hit by mini-tornado
 

Last night just after eating out for dinner, as rain approached with low clouds I walked into my apartment. Four seconds later (exactly) we were hit by a mini-tornado. I watched as one planter on my patio (I'm on the ground floor) fell over and the other plants were bent at 45 degree angles. Then it was over in about another 5 or so seconds. About two minutes later the warning sirens went off.

This morning I looked around. Our building had a about 20 square feet of roofing blown off and some side trim buckled, otherwise all is well. The three buildings to the west didn't do as well. Two had cupolos blown off and all three lost more roof tiles and siding than we did, nothing major. There is minor damage to some trees ... it would have been much worse but they had just been professionally pruned last month.

The thing hit a path about 100 yards wide going from SSW to NNE, which is the usual direction weather passes by her, including all tornados.

15 miles north the house of my best friend was also hit by a different one, but they suffered only damage to outdoor planters; nearby houses had the same minor damage as mine did.

I did not see the actual whirling, but others including the son of my best friend and one of our maintanence men who was outside (!) did.

Had that about a month ago. Glad you're ok. Cupulo blown off the roof and smashed to bits (it wasn't really attached or necessary), one small tree was ripped up by the roots and laid on its side, a few branches down and our yard was covered in the neighbors unbaged recycleables.

It happened at like 2-4AM I remember waking up from a deep sleep to LOUD thunder, I was completely exhausted and then this 30-40 second freight train like sound.... I remember thinking "I'm too exhausted to move, there was only a thunderstorm warning for the night... If the window don't blow in, god I hope it doesn't, I'm not moving". Several large trees were blown down across the neighborhood... Somehow we didn't loose power.

It turns out it was a pre-tornado. The "official" tornado map is now out and the line of one of them when extrapolated back a couple of miles exactly lies right where our damage is. The sirens were prompted by a report from my neighbors.

The roof-tile damage is all fixed. The cupulos will take longer. We are in a very large area of all-underground utilities that includes the big-box shopping for Champaign ... our county has two more, one in Urbana and one in Savoy (our large suburb.) So no power loss.