Drove through the aftermath of an F4 tornado today

[vi edit]

I live about 25 minutes from Washington, IL which has made national news the last few days. My wife and I have lots of coworkers, friends, former classmates, ect that live there. This past Sunday at around 11:00AM a fairly housing dense part of their community had an F4 tornado rip through it.

Here's an aerial view of the tornado's path:
https://omekeq.dm2302.livefilestore...JAUCdsyA6RICNmh05ujOxN2LZgupA/path.jpg?psid=1

That circle in the top left is near where a coworker of mine lives. She took very little damage. Her mother and sister were much less fortunate and were about halfway in the path of smiting. But they still faired better than the families that lived down the middle of that. Today myself and a few coworkers rounded up a bunch of supplies to take over there. We had a teammate who's husband worked for a billboard company and the leftover signs get tore down and make awesome 1000+ sq/ft tarps. Perfect to hang over ripped off roofs, yard fulls of belongings ect. Plus we hauled over blankets, food, toiletries and boxes to pack things up.

I knew it was bad. The pictures I saw before going in were bad. But nothing really prepared me for what I saw. The pure chaos left in this things wake is an image that won't leave me for a very long time. We really weren't near the true epicenter of things. There was just too much going on to get there. So we were on the outter edge bringing in our supplies.

Here's some pictures of what was going on:
Backside of my coworkers house...you can see how close they were to being leveled:
https://omekeq.dm1.livefilestore.co...OlslbB5E7E3T-9RSxk/20131119_143538.jpg?psid=1

Getting a little closer:
https://omekeq.dm2301.livefilestore...Yleifgp6JvYhGGhxSQ/20131119_144027.jpg?psid=1

Closer yet to the middle of the path:
https://omekeq.dm2302.livefilestore...E-gUUfZsfcfXy-pL54/20131119_144221.jpg?psid=1

Across the street from the last one:
https://omekeq.dm2301.livefilestore...zPidnr7TNEKwK8U5oU/20131119_144231.jpg?psid=1

Further down:
https://omekeq.dm2302.livefilestore...1BQAgVrnAdUFaw1GGQ/20131119_144239.jpg?psid=1

Pretty close to the middle of the path:
https://omekeq.dm2302.livefilestore...nigGdpFNZ93AlUro9M/20131119_144438.jpg?psid=1

No more house:
https://omekeq.dm2302.livefilestore...KbtC5TMK72YxhkyBKo/20131119_144543.jpg?psid=1

Free shower & mattress...lightly used
https://omekeq.dm2301.livefilestore...7H2f5sFin2sNrzKnxc/20131119_144642.jpg?psid=1

There's block after block that looks like this:
https://omekeq.dm1.livefilestore.co...tfIPtfUWqzx2JGfNGI/20131119_144657.jpg?psid=1

But one block away it looks like this:
https://omekeq.dm1.livefilestore.co...zHCTJ9tl2ZkezE-08o/20131119_144731.jpg?psid=1

Backyard of a house looking out to the path of chaos:
https://omekeq.dm2301.livefilestore...I-vfJbazZWdas9Vim0/20131119_145107.jpg?psid=1

EVERYTHING is caked in fiberglass insulation fuzz:
https://omekeq.dm2302.livefilestore...BFLXWDDmCFtsTNo8tQ/20131119_145145.jpg?psid=1

X's mean that all occupants were accounted for. Notice the lights are spun upside down:
https://omekeq.dm2301.livefilestore...OPjvGsE_IIfyuN9kW0/20131119_145258.jpg?psid=1

Just more debris:
https://omekeq.dm2302.livefilestore...MFRW-mlYe-JkbRh3uc/20131119_151058.jpg?psid=1

Here's a field over a mile away littered with more debris:
https://omekeq.dm2302.livefilestore...Lr1n5tY5Y6Beu56NLM/20131119_152933.jpg?psid=1

I've lived in the Midwest nearly my whole life. Tornados are just part of the deal. Most of the time they drop down, hit a few homes and that's it. Maybe they'll hit a farm and toss some grain silos around. A few years ago one of the worse ones in recent memory hit a small town dead in center of town and knocked down a few buildings and trees.

But nothing really compares to this. I originally compared it to a bomb going off. That's not an appropriate description. A bomb will level dwellings for miles around. It won't twist and contort everything it touches into a mockery of it's former self. It won't suck up pets and drop their bodies 50 miles away. It won't level one house to rubble and leave one 50 yards away mostly untouched.

It's such a surreal situation there. The amount of debris, where it scattered, and how it scattered just makes no sense.

I still can't fathom how driving through that carnage and seeing it, there has only been one reported death. It's just crazy.

To anyone out there in tornado areas...hug your family. Make a recording/listing of your belongings and upload them someplace offsite. If you have any pictures you cherish...digitize and upload to some cloud storage. And then just hope you live in an awesome neighborhood. The amount of people out cleaning up, helping, packing, ect was just incredible.

It was a very odd range of emotions today.

 

[OutHouse]

why do i have to sign in to view the pictures?

Sign in
Microsoft account What's this?

someone@example.com

Password
Keep me signed in

Can't access your account?

 

[vi edit]

Ah damn. Created that folder from my phone. Will try to manage permissions.

 

[foghorn67]

public drive on your SkyDrive or something.

 

[vi edit]

Try now and see if that works. Guess when you create a folder in skydrive from a mobile device you no longer have the option of changing permissions afterwards.

 

[foghorn67]

Works

 

[OutHouse]

better, thanks.

 

[waggy]

You live near Washington? My daughter had state in gymnastics down there last year. I'm about an hour north of you

A buddy of mine lives in Peoria. He drove around and said it was just terrible. While they were ok a lot of the area is just destroyed. they need to do some repairs to the house but nothing major

We had planned on going down to see the this weekend. that is put off for a while.

 

[foghorn67]

My lord. That is horrific.

 

[SKORPI0]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2509622/Washington-Illinois-tornado-Aerial-photos-incredible-scale-destruction-town.html :\

 

[vi edit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2509622/Washington-Illinois-tornado-Aerial-photos-incredible-scale-destruction-town.html :\

Aerial is one thing, but when you are actually on the street it's a totally different situation. That's when you see the playground slide 40 feet in the air hanging from a tree. A pair of pants hanging 15 feet in the air from an entry light. 2x4's driven through the sides of cars. Ect.

Just when you think you saw everything, nope. Go a couple feet further and see something entirely different.

 

[NoTine42]

Just what the tornado did to an empty farm field was stunning:
http://galleries.apps.chicagotribune.com/chi-131118-aerial-view-of-tornado-damage-pictures

 

[Drako]

That sucks Hopefully most of those affected have places to land until they can rebuild.

 

[sixone]

It sure makes an impression, doesn't it?

 

[vi edit]

Just what the tornado did to an empty farm field was stunning:
http://galleries.apps.chicagotribune.com/chi-131118-aerial-view-of-tornado-damage-pictures

Yeah. That link has pictures of places I couldn't get anywhere near. If that's an F4. I can't even imagine what an F5 would do. I don't know how much more it could do.

[edit] after re-reading the F classification I don't know how that *couldn't* have been an F5 based on the description of houses being ripped off of foundations.

 

[bbhaag]

Ya it's pretty bad. It came out of know where and left our town in pieces.
I hate to see my hometown left in shambles like it is now. I'm still speechless when I drive through town and see the damage done.

Thankfully our home wasn't damaged and neither was our business but a lot of people weren't as fortunate.

 

[sandorski]

Insane.

 

[Papa Hogan]

I hope the survivors recover to the fullest extent.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Insane. Sad having to start life from scratch like that. Was anyone killed or seriously injured in all that? I have not heard any major figures. Last I heard there was one death. Everyone is lucky to be alive.

 

[vi edit]

Insane. Sad having to start life from scratch like that. Was anyone killed or seriously injured in all that? I have not heard any major figures. Last I heard there was one death. Everyone is lucky to be alive.

Official toll is 1 death. Now when I was actually in the area today the mood was a little different. The "Red X" means that the house has been checked and all family members accounted for. When I was out today there were still quite a few houses that weren't accounted for. By that I mean they can neither confirm or deny that the people are alive. Either they are still buried, were one vacation, out to breakfast and never came back, or got sucked away and still not recovered.

 

[ManBearPig]

Thanks for the pics. That is just devastating. It's amazing to me that there aren't more fires and stuff from gas pipes and electrical wires and stuff being down. Do they just shut it all off ASAP?

 

[Printer Bandit]

i'd cream my pants if my house was spared in the middle of that.

then bust my ass around the clock to help those that were less fortunate.

 

[NoTine42]

Yeah. That link has pictures of places I couldn't get anywhere near. If that's an F4. I can't even imagine what an F5 would do. I don't know how much more it could do.

[edit] after re-reading the F classification I don't know how that *couldn't* have been an F5 based on the description of houses being ripped off of foundations.

I guess to be an EF5, the "Welcome to Washington" sign had to go further, it "only" landed in Streator, IL (almost 50 miles away)?

 

[JTsyo]

Would concrete structures fare better in these conditions? Would take longer to build but at least you wouldn't have to rebuild it.

 

[rudeguy]

the people behind you would like you to drive instead of taking pics