Monday, Jun. 08, 2009

Tornadoes hit metro-east; six homes in Mascoutah damaged

O'FALLON -- Jovoina Goetz, of 3586 Sky Hawk Drive in Shiloh, said she heard the wind blow against her front door. She opened it to see her F350 Ford pickup with its front wheels floating about a foot in the air.

Goetz yelled to her husband, Frank: "The truck is floating!"

Frank Goetz said "Oh bull," then looked out the window and saw the same thing. He grabbed their daughter Mackenzee, 7, and threw her on the floor just as the windows blew in, embedding glass into the walls behind where they had been standing.

About a third of the roof is missing from the home and the gable is hanging off in front of the bedroom area. The ceiling fell on the couple's bed. They had their roof replaced just two weeks ago.

According to reports on the Web site of the National Weather Service, four tornado incidents were reported: One in O'Fallon near Interstate 64 and Green Mount Road, one in Belleville near Illinois 177 and Illinois 158, one south of Illinois 161 between Belleville and Scott Air Force Base, and one at Scott Air Force Base.

Doug Tilly, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Weldon Spring, Mo., said that while four were reported, they likely were all the same tornado skipping through several places. He said meteorologists won't be sure until Tuesday how many separate tornados touched down in the metro-east.

He said that tomorrow, teams from the National Weather Service will assess damage and form out more detailed reports.

He also said that at about 8 p.m., the storm was moving through Perry County, Ill., where there was a tornado warning in effect.

In Mascoutah, emergency crews were waiting for the OK from Ameren to begin cleaning up damge there, Mascoutah Fire Chief Dean Juenger said. About six homes sustained major structural damage, but no injuries were reported. Downed power lines were everywhere.

Across Lebanon Avenue from the Goetz's home, Christine Drive resident Adriana Arteaga did not know what she would find after the tornado passed Monday afternoon.

"We were hiding in the bathroom; it got pitch black," she said. "It happened in a matter of seconds. We heard a lot of loud sounds like when a train is passing."

When she came out of her house, she saw downed and broken trees, debris and a car overturned in a ditch on Lebanon Drive.

Martin Neff and his son Josh were at their at 3567 Sky Hawk Drive when the wind started blowing.

"We heard the proverbial frieght train," he said.

He told his son to get in the basement. They sat in the basement and listened for what seemed like 15 minutes or so to popping and cracking outside. When they got upstairs there was severe water damage from hole in the roof. The garage doors had been blown out the back of the garage, taking the back wall with them.

Jana Cantrell of Galatia, Ill., said she and a friend were on their way to a class at Lindenwood University in Belleville when, while driving on Interstate 64, they passed a funnel cloud with debris spinning inside. She said the friend's car was moving as if it were about to be lifted off the interstate, so she pulled off at Exit 14 in O'Fallon. While banging on the doors of the Country Inn and Suites in O'Fallon, the two were surrounded by airborne debris. They hovered under an awning and were uninjured.

"We couldn't tell what it was, it was big pieces of stuff, way up in the air, spinning around like a tornado," she said. "It was crazy."

It was still snowing insulation in the subdivision at 7 p.m.

AmerenIP was reporting at 6:40 p.m. power outages in several metro-east locations: 2,244 in O'Fallon, 294 in Mascoutah, 63 in Freeburg, and 38 in Lebanon.

Capt. Don Sax of the Belleville Police Department said no damage has been reported in the city.

O'Fallon Public Works Department was going down Sky Hawk Drive and picking up debris about 7:15 p.m.

Marnie Wright, of 3548 Sky Hawk Drive, left the house with her 7-year-old and 2-year-old sons about 20 minutes before the storm hit. She got a call from a neighbor telling her that a tornado had touched down in the subdivision. It lifted the boy's wooden swing set, carrying it over a hill into a neighbor's yard. It also damaged the roof of her home.

"I think we lucked out; this can all be replaced," Wright said.

Across Lebanon Avenue, pieces of siding and other parts of houses hung in the trees.

On one side of the Neff house, part of the roof is ripped of a two-story house. On the other side, the garage door of a one-story house has been pushed in about two feet.

The entire subdivision is littered with shingles.

Sgt. Jim Cavins of the O'Fallon Police Department said storms have caused heavy roof damage to Fulton Junior High School; that power lines, transformers and trees are down west of Green Mount Road and extending north and south from there; and that a tree had landed on a house near Main Street and Caroline Avenue.

Cavins said no injuries have been reported.

Ameren spokesman Sean Vanslyke warned residents to stay away from downed power lines.

"We are assessing damage at this time," he said. "We have crews in the area and we're working but we're trying to figure out what we're dealing with. The message now is for people to stay away from all power lines and assume that they're hot. Safety has got to be our first priority for our coworkers and our customers."

At Fulton Junior High School, Dave Parker, director of buildings and grounds was inspecting the damage to the roof and looking at whether construction on the east side of the building was damaged.

Lightning hit the air-conditioning unit on the roof of the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel off Green Mount Road north of I-64 in O'Fallon, O'Fallon Fire Chief Brent Saunders said. Emergency crews were investigating multiple complaints of lightning strikes at homes throughout the city.

"We had a lightning strike, and it blew the air-conditioning off the roof," Saunders said.

Fairview firefighters were dealing with problems reportedly caused by a lightning strike at the O'Fallon Wal-Mart. They reportedly evacuated the store.

There was no power at Green Mount Road and Frank Scott Parkway, causing a massive traffic backup.

At U.S. 50 near the Denny's restaurant a tree was blocking the roadway and had taken down power lines, falling onto a pickup truck. Emergency crews had to remove a person from the cab. Police blocked U.S. 50 between Cambridge Boulevard and Green Mount Road.

For more on this story, read the News-Democrat on Tuesday or return to bnd.com