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Question of the day

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Illinois

* I had booked a train last week to Chicago on Friday evening. I figured it would be delayed because of the major storms rolling through. So I wasn’t surprised to receive a message saying it was, indeed, delayed. The train eventually departed at 8 o’clock, but it stopped a few minutes later, and then it began to back up. The conductor came on the intercom to tell us that downed power lines were on the tracks ahead, so the train would go back to the Springfield station to wait. I pulled out my iPad and booked a train for the next morning, figuring there was no way in heck that train would begin moving at any sort of reasonable hour. I got off the train and went back home and woke up to see the next morning that Amtrak had waited until 3:30 AM to cancel the route.

Oy. Those poor people.

Saturday morning, I received a text from Amtrak saying there was a problem with my train and its departure would be delayed by 20 minutes. A friend took me to the station and we arrived about 15 minutes before the train’s delayed departure. He suggested I look up the train’s status online to see if anything had changed. I did, and nothing had changed. I walked into the station only to find out that the train had left at its originally scheduled time, about five minutes before I got there.

Ugh. The first train couldn’t be helped, but that second one is on Amtrak.

I ended up renting a car online, but Hertz didn’t have a car when my friend (same guy) took me over there an hour later.

Argh.

I finally got out of town after booking a rental car from Budget over the phone.

Anyway, while frustrating, my experiences were nothing at all compared to some of the devastation that occurred in Illinois due to that major storm.

* The Question: Did you have any storm damage on Friday, or do you have any interesting storm-related stories to tell about Friday?

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 12:16 pm

Comments

Nothing damaged this time.

Comment by DuPage Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 12:19 pm
Nope. Just high wind,no damage, just a one second blink on power that reset everything. Checked on friends in Sherman, Williamsville, Riverton, etc; all were fine.

Now if you want to talk about the 2006 twin F2’s in Springfield, that’s another story …

Comment by RNUG Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 12:21 pm
A line (not a power line, but a phone line) came down between me and the neighbors behind me. Part of the fence between us came down. Lots of branches and such too and the power was out overnight.

Re: your car reservation. Same thing happened to me last year at Enterprise (more than once).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T2GmGSNvaM

Comment by Google Is Your Friend Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 12:22 pm
Minor roof damage at cabin in the woods. None at house in town.

Comment by Huh? Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 12:28 pm
I was in Springfield Friday morning and got on the road well before the bad stuff happened. When I retire, I want to be an amateur storm chaser, so I was tempted to hang around the danger zone and check it out. My better instincts and my wife dissuaded me from that idea however, and I’m better off because of it.

The power of nature is definitely something to behold. But at a safe distance.

Comment by 47th Ward Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 12:30 pm
I have a ham license and was listening to the spotters’ network (trained and untrained spotters share observations) have to say that I heard more folks say

“I am going to the basement.”

Than any other storm, I have listened in on. The Montgomery/Aurora tornado terminated about 2~3 miles from the house, and we didn’t have any damage.

I did hear just about every emergency vehicle siren go off shortly after.

Comment by OneMan Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 12:34 pm
We faired pretty well. A few small limbs blown down. Flipped both grills, Gas and Charcoal, I can fix both. Gas was new last year so I cursed a bit. Kids playschool house came apart. A few trampolines went for a ride in the area.

Overall not bad could’ve been worse.

Comment by Mason born Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 12:49 pm
There was a traffic light at the intersection of Randall Rd and Route 64 in St. Charles that got knocked down and moved to the side of the road. Otherwise nothing too major.

So sad to hear about the theater in Belvidere where the roof collapsed during a metal show. I like Revocation, one of the bands who were supposed to play that night, so boy am I glad I didn’t attend.

Comment by Techie Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 1:22 pm
Lost an old Apple tree .
No pies this year

Comment by Red Ketcher Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 1:24 pm
I wish Amtrack was better. They always get delayed coming into Chicago because of Feight train interference.I wish there was more investment in this option to travel. Sometimes those short flights are just a pain in the airport so to speak.

Comment by TinMan Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 1:24 pm
No storm damage but a similar Amtrak story. On the 24th I was booked to go from Union Station to New Buffalo on the 4 pm train. Got to the station and the board said all Amtrak trains were delayed. Went to the counter where the Amtrak people were handing out free slices of pizza to the passengers on the delayed trains. Was told that the trains would be delayed 2-4 hours. I turned down the pizza, walked on and jumped on the South Shore line. Got a text 5 hours later that the Amtrak train had been canceled. Couldn’t help but feel for those people who could not just find another way.

Comment by Paddyrollingstone Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 1:34 pm
My mother was out driving in Jasper County when the Jasper-Crawford tornado warning started up. I made her cancel a stop and head straight home, and the tornado ended up touching down less than 5 miles from where she’d been out driving. Very thankful I was watching.

Comment by Shibboleth Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 1:56 pm
The Jasper/Crawford County tornado passed south of my hometown (Oblong), but Mom and Dad were without power for several hours and are under a boil order for water now. A few hundred yards to the north and it would have hit the refinery Dad retired from. On Saturday, my uncle was delivering sawdust to put on spilled oil from a tank farm that was hit. The mother of one of his neighbors lost her life.

Comment by The Ford Lawyer Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 2:05 pm
if you look at the Twitter feed of Mike Janssen, one of the WGN weather guys, you will see astounding water from the storm Friday night in the Niles/Morton Grove area. it’s maybe 6 inches deep as the sewers just could not keep up with the rain. weird thing is that this was not the case in some places nearby. but the video shows so much water.

Comment by Amalia Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 2:40 pm
The power went off about 5:45 p.m. Friday. Part of the subdivision is Ameren (they had electricity) and part is Corn Belt Electric Coop (no power.) By the time I found matches for my candles and got them lit, the lights and cable was back on. Nice little practice to do a better job of getting preparedfor storms this spring and summer

Comment by Nearly Normal Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 2:58 pm
No damage. Just wind and some small hail. Sirens went off countywide as the alerts were issued. Hoping that Constellation changes its mind on phasing those out in our county. In combination with phone alerts and local media (especially the excellent coverage of WCIA), the sirens help save lives (banned punctuation). Some folks in our area are still in dead zones when it comes to cell and internet coverage.

Comment by Anon221 Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 2:58 pm
Looking ahead to tomorrow election day unfortunately there is again some concern about severe weather outbreaks especially in the late afternoon and evening. As usual I’ll be an election judge at my usual location. But I realized I had no idea where the safe space or storm shelter is at the polling place should the tornado alarm sound. This morning I called the village hall to ascertain that info but they did not know. They said it had never come up??? I did receive a call back a few hours later with an interior location that they considered storm proof. I thought I’d pass this along so others who may be spending the day at their polling location and may want to clarify where their safe space is.

Comment by Responsa Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 3:52 pm
I don’t trust a delay. Too many times I’ve almost missed a flight because a delay suddenly vanished while I meandered away from the gate, and they loaded up the plane as quickly as was possible.

Comment by North Park Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 4:03 pm
Off the topic and late in the day, I just want to say that from the perspective of an outsider and mostly lurker that hiring Isabel was about the best decision you ever made. She is a dynamo, and from what I can see, her presence gives you more time to dig deep and report accordingly. Not a subscriber, but it seems like a lot of benefit would be felt there.

Comment by Excessively Rabid Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 4:04 pm