Bad Storms in Midwest 11/17; chat

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pennyk

pennyk

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For those of you that were "chatting" when Railroad Bill suddenly left because he heard sirens, I want to let you know he is ok. I PM'd him and below is part of his response to me:

Everything went pretty well. No damage to property. Lots of wind and rain for about a half hour. There was a sighting about 8 miles north which prompted the sirens to go off. Yes, it sounds like a London blitz air raid when all the sirens go off. We have one at the fairgrounds just a couple of blocks from us and it is pretty loud if you are outside.

Luckily didnt seem to cause much local damage but Toledo got hit pretty hard and parts of NE Ohio as well.

Thanks to everyone for their concern. Mr Gato stayed behind me on the floor until the storm passed.
 
Glad that Bill is okay. I see from Facebook that Sarah also got home all right. Best wishes to everyone in the midwest.

Sorry I couldn't join the chat last night. I was on my way home from PDX, and the rain we got was nothing compared to what they were getting!
 
Parts of Kentucky were hit hard yesterday, too, but more to the west of where I am. We had 40+ mph winds and a lot of rain.
 
Good to hear. Presumably we had some storms last night as I found some severe storm warnings in your area on my iPod this morning from a Philly stations. If they did hit near me, slept right through them (deafness has it's advantages :) ).
 
Lucky you, I got woken up by a heck of windstorm around 2:30 or so. Worried about a tree falling on the house for a minute, then promptly went back to sleep. :)

The upside is that it looks like most of the leaves are off the trees. I can rake once and be done with it! :D
 
<voice_of_experience="on">

If I leave them laying around, eventually they get into the window well for the basement window.

When enough of them get down there, it clogs the drain.

When the drain is clogged, and it rains hard enough, the well will fill with water.

With sufficient water pressure, the window will shatter, filling the basement with water, broken glass and dead leaves that I should have raked up months ago.

</voice_of_experience>
 
Looks like Illinois, Missouri and Western Ohio got the worst of the Storms, glad all our AU Friends came out OK! And was Sarah on the Michigan Train that was delayed 5 Hours in CHI for Mechanical Reasons???
 
RyanS said:
No, I think she took the South Shore line for this trip.
Click to expand...
I did, seven hours later than planned. Our house is fine. I'll have more about my day in my trip report.

I see on Facebook that Betty-Normal is okay too.
 
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More Info coming out on the Terrible Storms! Looks like Illinois got it the Worst! Yesterdays Eagles (10/17)) are running Extremely Late, the Delays seem to have caused by Extra Long Dwell Time in PBF, guess the Winds were too Strong to run the Trains during the Storms!

I look forward to Sarahs Trip Report, 7 Hours is a Looooong Delay!
 
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I should have clarified; the delay wasn't caused by the South Shore Line. I decided to stay at Millennium Station until the tornadoes had passed through Indiana and Michigan.
 
jimhudson said:
Looks like Illinois, Missouri and Western Ohio got the worst of the Storms, glad all our AU Friends came out OK! And was Sarah on the Michigan Train that was delayed 5 Hours in CHI for Mechanical Reasons???
Click to expand...
I just figured out what you were talking about. I was this close to buying a ticket on that train while waiting for the South Shore. Glad I didn't.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-11-18/news/chi-amtrak-train-stuck-6-hours-20131118_1_marc-magliari-amtrak-train-outside-station

I found an interactive map, showing the path of the tornadoes and details about each one. I didn't realize one touched down just a few miles south of my parents' house (that lone one you see in northern Michigan). My mother neglected to mention that when I called her. :p

http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-central/tornado-outbreak-midwest-november17-interactive-map-20131118
 
Here in El Paso, Il, east of Washington, IL, where the tornado was an EF-4 and an estimated thousand homes were destroyed, I am amazed at how all the small towns around here have pulled together to give those affected free apartment rental until the end of the year, groceries, tarps and nails, coats, water, and on and on. Although it is past the 48 hours of newsworthiness around the U.S. it's still very much on the news around here.

Bloomington/Normal - BNL - had some roofs blown off, huge hail, shopping mall walls torn off, etc., but overall was uscathed. The new Amtrak station has no problems that I'm aware of.
 
Everydaymatters said:
Here in El Paso, Il, east of Washington, IL, where the tornado was an EF-4 and an estimated thousand homes were destroyed, I am amazed at how all the small towns around here have pulled together to give those affected free apartment rental until the end of the year, groceries, tarps and nails, coats, water, and on and on. Although it is past the 48 hours of newsworthiness around the U.S. it's still very much on the news around here.

Bloomington/Normal - BNL - had some roofs blown off, huge hail, shopping mall walls torn off, etc., but overall was uscathed. The new Amtrak station has no problems that I'm aware of.
Click to expand...
I'm glad you're okay.
 
I'm glad neighbors help neighbors! :)

One weekend everything is fine. The next weekend is very warm, ending with tornados and loss of everything. The next weekend is freezing temperatures.

I'm glad your OK Betty, and I hope all AU members are OK!
 
Paper "things" are being found in the Chicago area all the time; mostly pictures, some letters, sheet music, a wallet with a drivers license. They all end up in the southwest suburbs or south areas of Chicago.

Here's an interesting connection to Amtrak out of this tornado. On TV they just showed a young girl whose school ID was found in the Amtrak yard in Chicago. The people who found it drove down here to Washington to return it to the girl. They did not say if it was an Amtrak employee who found it, but I would suspect it was. :)
 

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