Nothing
Up My Sleeve
Jon
Gallagher
Weather
or Not…. (part 2)
Last
week, I wrote about how it is to live in a town that serves as the guinea pig
for the weather warning system for Peoria.
It
got me curious as to just how many times Galesburg and the surrounding area has
been hit with tornadoes. It seems
like it was an awful lot, at least when I was growing up.
There’s
an old wives’ tale about how Galesburg is protected from tornadoes because one
of the Catholic Churches is the repository for the remains of Saint
Crescent. Another story tells how
Galesburg is built on a natural “knob” in the topography of West Central Illinois.
I
checked with the National Weather Service who was able to provide me with the
dates of known tornadoes in Knox County since 1950. Surprisingly, there are only 21 confirmed tornadoes over the
past 59 years. There has not been
one death attributed to a tornado in Knox County during that time and only 14
people have been reported injured from these 21 storms.
I
thought we’d take a look at some of these storms.
During
the early evening hours of Sunday, May 14, 1961, storm warnings were posted all
around the Midwest. Around 7PM, an
F-3 tornado touched down in eastern Knox County just outside of Rapatee,
winding its way northeast toward the village of Douglas. Eight people were injured, 19 homes and
two businesses were damaged, as the twister caused two and a half million
dollars worth of damage. Five of
those injured were in the basement of a home that collapsed in the village of
Douglas. The path of the twister
was more than 15 miles long. A
total of eight homes were destroyed.
Later
that same year, on July 21, a Friday afternoon, an F-1 tornado touched down
outside of St. Augustine at the southern edge of the county. It hop scotched south, touching down
intermittently for the next fifty miles, but doing little damage.
Galesburg’s
first and only official tornado (thus disproving the safety provided by St.
Crescent) came on a Sunday evening, May 7, 1967. Around 8:15, the F-1 funnel cloud formed over the Westport
subdivision west of town.
Witnesses say that it touched down and took dead aim at the relatively
new Galesburg Municipal Airport.
Four planes were destroyed, and five other aircraft were damaged. The twister continued southeast,
skipping along and damaging homes on Emery, McClure, Lancaster and Lyman
streets were damaged. A barn on Accommodation
Avenue where a high school student kept animals for a 4-H project was flattened
by the storm.
Perhaps
the largest tornado in Knox County history occurred seven years later. It was a hot, humid Friday on June 14,
1974, and conditions were prime for severe weather. Late in the afternoon, three funnel clouds descended on the
town of Abingdon, tearing a path of destruction four blocks wide almost
straight down Route 41 in the center of town. The F-3 tornado damaged more than 200 homes and caused more
than 2 million dollars in damage.
Miraculously, only one injury was reported.
On
the south side of town, Winkler’s Sporting Goods lost the upper story on their
building where the family resided.
They had several boats for sale outside the building and those were
found scattered over a quarter-mile stretch.
A
dog that had been chained to its doghouse outside an Abingdon home was found a
block away, still chained to his doghouse with the chain wrapped around a
telephone pole.
The
city was closed off to anyone who didn’t live there as residents began to dig
out from the rubble. Galesburg
sent city crews and neighboring towns lent off duty police officers to help
control sightseers.
It
took years for Abingdon to recover from the devastating storm. In fact, the last time I took a private
plane over Abingdon, the path of the tornado was still visible as newer housing
and trees stretched from the northwest corner, all the way through and south of
town.
Six
days later, four confirmed touchdowns were reported the first coming at 5:45
PM. Between 7:15 and 8:20, the
other three would touch down. None
of the four ranged above an F-1 rating, and only $3000 of damage was
reported. The touchdown sites were
between Rio and Oneida, near Victoria, East Galesburg, and north of St.
Augustine.
An
elderly couple were hospitalized as the result of their home being destroyed on
March 23, 1975 just southwest of Altona. Mr. and Mrs. Louis Johnson had lived
in the home for more than 50 years when the tornado struck, and destroyed the
home. The rubble somehow caught
fire and the couple were rescued from the exposed basement. The storm was estimated to be an F-2
tornado.
A
year later on March 3, 1976, a funnel touched down in Victoria, damaging eight
buildings and destroying a metal shed.
The F-2 storm caused
$25,000 in damage.
Things
were quiet then, for more than ten years.
The next twister touched down just south of Dahinda, on July 6, 1987, close
to where County Road 19 meets Interstate 74. The F-1 storm damaged a grain bin around 4:15 in the
afternoon, staying on the ground for just a brief period.
There
was little warning on May 13, 1995 when an F-2 tornado wreaked havoc across the
southern part of the county. The
funnel dropped just north of St. Augustine and travelled northeast for about 15
miles. A newly planted orchard
with 1200 new trees just north of Hermon was completely destroyed. Eighteen homes were either destroyed or
damaged along with several outbuildings.
Farm implements were twisted balls of metal in the storm’s wake and the
roof of the Maquon Fire Station was taken off.
Three
tornadoes would be confirmed in 1997.
The first on April 30, started in northeast Fulton County around
Fairview. Its intensity was
estimated at an F-0, but it still managed to do considerable damage to
buildings south of Yates City. The
path through Knox County was minimal and most of the damage occurred in Fulton
and Peoria Counties.
Three
weeks later on May 18, another tornado touched down the Yates City area, this
one about eight miles southwest of the village. It caused no damage.
On
August 3, another F-0 tornado touched down outside of Victoria in the Lake
Calhoun area. Although it ripped
out about 30 trees, no other property damage was reported. All three of the 1997 tornadoes were
F-0 storms.
On
either 6/29 or 4/29 1998, an F-1 tornado touched down at 3:20 PM just outside
of Williamsfield. The twister
moved on the ground for about four miles, damaging several homes and destroying
a few farm buildings. Two million
dollars in damage was reported.
On
April 22, 1999, the last tornado of the 20th century was reported
outside of Appleton. The storm
came at 9:27 PM, the latest a tornado has ever touched down in the county. No damage was reported.
September
11, 2000, an F-0 tornado cut a one mile path just north of St. Augustine. No damage was reported.
Another
F-0 was confirmed on April 30, 2003 about 6 miles northeast of Victoria. Again, there was no damage to report.
Almost
a year later on April 20, 2004, another storm came within a few miles of the
previous year’s, touching down northeast of Victoria. This one, however, destroyed one farm building and left a
few others with damage.
Part
of an outbuilding was damaged on June 8, 2005 south of Henderson. This F-0 tornado was only on the ground
for a short time before dissipating.