Clean Up of Weekend Storms Continue

By Benjamin Cox on July 12, 2021 at 8:54pm

Listener submitted photo of the tornado touchdown near Arenzville on Saturday afternoon.

Weekend storms pounded West Central Illinois. A few locations are in clean up mode this evening, and will continue throughout the week.

A severe storm system swept through Brown County on Friday night downing power lines and trees along Illinois Route 99. No injuries have been reported. Lime-sized hail hit some places in the area that shattered windows, damaged roofs, and dented cars. WGEM reports severe crop damage and structure damage to Kassing Lumber, A.C. McCartney Equipment, the Brown County High School baseball dugout and Prairieland Fuel.

Photos of some of the hail that fell in Mt. Sterling Friday. (Courtesy of Libby White)

A second system spawned multiple brief tornadoes on Saturday afternoon across Morgan and Cass counties.

Director of the Morgan County Emergency Management Office Phil McCarty says some significant damage was reported around 2:15 Saturday southwest of Arenzville in northern Morgan County: “We had what we suspect was a tornado touch down in the area of St. Paul’s Church Road and the Arenzville Road. We had some crop damage. We had some power lines down and some structure damage along that area.” No injuries were reported.

A half hour later, three brief touchdowns were reported within 2 miles of the City of Virginia and 3 miles southwest of Newmansville. Multiple reports of power outages, downed power lines, and structure damage was reported. Virginia High School’s greenhouse and bus barn were said to have received some damage. Crops were also downed in several areas. Ameren Illinois outage map showed a small number of customers remained without power this morning.

In Schuyler County, a tornado reported touched down near Littleton damaging a barn on Saturday afternoon, spreading debris near U.S. 67 and Caldwell Lane according to the Journal Courier.

Last night, flash flood waters were reported over the road on Interstate 72 near New Berlin. A funnel cloud was also allegedly spotted near Ashland according to WICS Newschannel 20.

Locally heavy rainfall occured in several areas of Springfield today, with some places reporting over 6 inches. Several cars were stalled in roadways and under overpasses within the city and rural portions of Sangamon County. Flooding near the Illinois River in low-lying areas is expected to continue this week. The National Weather Service says scattered storms are expected, especially east of I-55 tonight with rain returning into the forecast on Thursday.