Power’s back on, cable modem is working and a quick check doesn’t turn up much storm damage. Hope all my subscribers and blog readers made it through OK.

How did you come out of it?

UPDATE: From a press release:

Last night Springfield and other communities throughout Central Illinois and the Metro East suffered damage from severe storms and tornadoes. The State Emergency Operation Center in Springfield was activated last night. Staff has been on duty overnight and will continue coordinating with local officials today.

Governor Rod R. Blagojevich this morning has instructed State agencies to coordinate with the City of Springfield and provide to help restore power and services.

“Residents in Central Illinois suffered a devastating storm last night. While local officials and our State emergency teams are still assessing the extent of the damage, I want to assure the people of Springfield that we will commit whatever State assistance is needed to help get their city up and running again,” said the Governor.

Because of damage and loss of power at several State office buildings in Springfield, the State’s Continuation of Operation and Continuation of Government Plans have been activated and non-essential state employees in Springfield are not required to report to work today. Only personnel previously identified by their agencies as essential in emergency circumstances are required to report to work.

UPDATE 2: The State Journal Register website is being slammed by all the visits. Here’s the latest update:

Last Updated 3/13/2006 10:01:39 AM

A strong, long-lived tornado was responsible for much of the damage that wrecked Springfield homes and businesses Sunday night, the National Weather Service in Lincoln has confirmed.

NWS survey crews are scouring the area to look at the damage and try to estimate what the wind speeds were, said Ed Shimon of the National Weather Service in Lincoln.

“It was a tornado. We had a visual sighting of it approaching the city and also as it went through,” he said. “It was on the ground causing a tornado or almost causing a tornado all the way from Kansas City. It was an extremely long-lived storm. It would strengthen, have a tornado and then it would weaken again.”

Sangamon County officials have declared as disaster areas the portions of Sangamon County where the storm moved through beginning about 8:15 p.m. The storm tracked roughly from New Berlin in western Sangamon County, through the southwest and central parts of Springfield and east toward Illiopolis.

Officials have estimated millions of dollars in damage to area homes and businesses.

“The closest I’ve seen to this is the ice storm (of March 1978); it’s just unreal,” Davlin said of the damage early today.

“It’s the worst I’ve seen in 25 years,” added Police Chief Don Kliment.

Power to the Sangamon County Building was turned back on about 4:30 a.m. today. The jail was on lockdown overnight because of the outage, according to county administrator Ryan McCrady.

Emergency officials are confirming 19 people suffered minor injuries in the county as a result of the storm. There were no reports of deaths or missing people.·

From what I could gather from listening to the radio last night, the tornado cut a path roughly from Target on the Southwest Side to Channel 20 on the Northeast Side. Huge amounts of damage.

From the SJ-R website. Go there for more pics, but be warned that the site is pretty slow right now from all the hits.

UPDATE: The 11th Hour liveblogged the storm last night and has more updates today. If you blogged the storm or the aftermath, please link to your posts in comments.

UPDATE: From a press release:

Governor Rod R. Blagojevich will meet with Mayor Tim Davlin
and State Emergency Management Officials at the State Emergency Operation Center in Springfield today to discuss the damage caused by last night’s severe storms and tornados. Immediately following the private meeting, there will be a media briefing at the Center to discuss the damage and the steps the State will take to assist Springfield in getting it up and running again. The Governor will then tour the area from above in a helicopter with Mayor Davlin and the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA) to further assess any destruction done.

       

19 Comments - zatoichi - Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 10:33 am: Storm passed us by with only some limbs falling out of trees. Like an idiot, watched the rain from the garage. Sheets of rain, heavy lighting, loud thunder, hard wind. Great horror movie stuff. Electricity popped off for split seconds. Heard about the damage in Springfield from the news this morning. Brother-in-law had some damage at his store and vehicles. Have to say TV and Radio coverage could not have been better. Almost play by play of where the storms were. Sorry to hear about the people who were killed or had major damage. Waiting for the “New Orleans II” analysis stuff to start, but thankfully it was nowhere close. Unfortunately, it is the time of year for tornadoes and there will be more, like there always are. Weather Channel said up to 100 tornadoes swept through several states. Now that is power. - Backyard Conservative - Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 10:34 am: Glad you are back on track. Very boring up north, just rain and normal spring wind. So I did a post or two: http://backyardconservative.blogspot.com/2006/03/ brady-best-on-tax-relief-jobs.html http://backyardconservative.blogspot.com/2006/03/ governor-needs-to-step-up.html - Marta Elena - Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 10:37 am: Zatoici - You weren’t the only watching the storm near a door last night. I’m a very close neighbor of the Elijah Iles House on 7th street. Once the first storm passed - we drove to CVS on Carpenter street to get ice and additional candles. Downtown Springfield was pitch black. There were people walking around. I also heard of some looting on the southeast side of town. Thankfully the business owners had shotguns to scare away the looters. Drove by the Guv’s mansion on the way to CVS. The lights were on……. - ISU REP - Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 11:00 am: the lights may have been on, but nobody was home…take that as you wish - Marta Elena - Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 11:07 am: ISU Rep- I agree with you - I doubt anyone was there. Of course, I was just one family living in downtown Springfield who had to deal with no electricity last night. I can see the Guv’s mansion from my front window. When I drove by last night - I simply noticed the lights were on. It stuck out like a sore thumb since the rest of downtown Springfield was pitch black. - ISU REP - Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 11:19 am: I would assume they have a back up generator, does anyone know if anything happen to UIS, I haven’t spoken to any of my friends from there this morning…I hope everythings ok. Thankfully Normal barely got any storms last night I remember 5 years ago when I first came to this lovely town as an undergrad there were tornado warnings constantly…Have to love springtime in IL - Anonymous - Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 11:29 am: Any updates on the several fundraisers scheduled for tonight? Are they still going on? Senate Dems, Granberg, Hoffman, Risinger, etc. - Edwin - Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 11:54 am: Was the driveway heater on as well at the Mansion? - Anonymous - Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 11:59 am: Speaking of the governor’s mansion. Do you know it’s now available for slumber parties if you’re a teen-ager and at least one parent is a member of the legislature. - Rich Miller - Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 12:10 pm: Allright, that’s enough. - DOWNSTATE - Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 12:30 pm: C’mon guys you finally get the Governor to Springfield and yer still bellyaching. - Randall Sherman - Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 12:57 pm: Apparently it has to take an Act of god to get the Governor to come down to Springfield! Anyway, I’m gald you are all right. - LittleEgypt - Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 12:59 pm: I have not heard on the news that Gov. Hairdo has landed in Springfield. No doubt he will be late for the meeting and it will be too dark to tour the area in a helicopter so back to Chicago he will go. I’m not sure I believe it will be a live meeting either (could be a video link) and you can bet he will take NO questions. - Central IL Stater - Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 1:54 pm: Backyard, your links aren’t working. Good to hear you’re alright Rich. My sister’s power got knocked out too but she’s fine. Any word on the fujita scale about the tornado? F2 or low F3? I don’t think it would be any more or less than that. - Tornado Chasing Dork - Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 2:01 pm: The tornado was rated a 3.058674576 by the latest instruments we have. Seriously, hope all is well in the ‘patch and life gets back to normal soon. BTW, did you see the story in the SJ-R abou the missing man that turned out to have died last week? That’s a close-knit neighborhood! - Team Sleep - Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 2:13 pm: Luckily, my wife and I suffered no damage to our vehicles or our apartment. Our entire block was untouched, save for a downed tree or two. I feel for the business owners and homeowners (and landlords) along Veterans and Wabash. What a shame… - Marta Elena - Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 3:14 pm: UIS is fine- it'’ll take more than a tornado that knock down that place. From my understanding, the Hairdo and Davlin (mayor of spfld) are to do a fly over in a helicopter today. - Papa Legba - Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 3:18 pm: Tornado Chasing Dork - That is a pretty amazingly sensitive measurement of the storms velocity. One question. Was it strong enough to muss the govs hair? Just wondering. - alwaysalice - Tuesday, Jun 27, 06 @ 11:07 pm: planning a trip with my family, where any of the Lincoln sites damaged? The hotel we were going to stay in has canceled our reservations, any suggestions on where to stay? Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.