DECATUR – A fast-moving weather front barreled through Central Illinois on Wednesday evening, prompting tornado sightings and causing straight-line wind gust damage that downed trees and sparked scattered power outages.
Tornado warning sirens went off in Decatur and Macon County just before 5 p.m after weather spotters reported a tornado on the ground west of Niantic. Cloud rotation was also reported over Decatur at Neeley Avenue and Mound Road, over a field at Greenswitch Road north of Mound Road and at Garfield Avenue and Illinois Street.
The Macon County Emergency Management Agency said it did not have confirmation of the tornado on the ground, and no tornado-related damage reports had been received by late Wednesday evening.
But an Ameren Illinois outage map did show multiple storm-related small power outages spread across a wide area of Decatur and more extensively in the Niantic area. At one point, the utility recorded that, systemwide, about 3,000 customers were without power.
Tammy Esposito, an administrative assistant with the Emergency Management Agency, said tree damage reports covered an equally wide area: “These reports are both from within Decatur and some outside, with trees also reported down in Harristown and Warrensburg,” she added.
One large tree that fell on North Summit Avenue in Decatur crushed a car, and the Macon County Sheriff’s Office said a large tree that fell on Walmsley Road at Allen Lane dragged down a power line. The National Weather Service Office in Lincoln said large tree limbs were also brought down in the Mount Zion area.
Meteorologist Daryl Onton said Decatur Airport had clocked wind gusts to 46 mph as 1.25 inches of rain deluged the city at the height of the short-lived storm. Wind gusts of 60 mph battered Mattoon while gusts hit a peak of 70 mph in Peoria, and there were multiple reports of power lines and poles down in Champaign County.
treid@herald-review.com|(217) 421-7977
Picture: Jim Bowling Herald & Review
