5-26-2011

TORNADOES HIT AREA

Wednesday night was another long night due to extreme severe weather that struck our area.  The National Weather Service issued dozens of tornado warnings, many times as many as 12 tornado warnings were active at one time.  Damage has been reported from throughout the metro east.  The storm cell that sparked the tornado warning in Bond County moved up from the southwest through St. Clair then Clinton County.  It kept the area under a tornado warning for nearly one hour.  Large trees were down in different parts of the county including on Beaumont, Charles, and College Avenues in Greenville.  According to Ameren, nearly 1000 customers in Greenville were without power around 7:00 p.m. Wednesday.  Many more customers in St. Clair, Madison and Clinton Counties were also without power.  At least three streets and roads in the county had to be closed for some time to either move trees or power lines, including Beaumont and College Avenues and Pokey Road.  It will take some time before the National Weather Service can determine just how many tornadoes touched the ground Wednesday night.  One tornado was confirmed in Fayette County late last night.  A huge thank you goes to our local emergency personnel who were out right after the storm to secure dangerous situations like downed trees and power lines.  If you have any storm damage pictures please email them to tom@wgel.com and we could put them up at WGEL.com.  Local police had no reports of injuries from the storm and the most common damage was downed trees and tree limbs.     

All pictures are from Greenville where large trees and limbs were knocked down during Wednesday night's storms. Thank you for everyone who sent pictures to WGEL. If you have damage pictures you want to share please send them to tom@wgel.com.

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RAIN TOTALS FOR GREENVILLE

The area received more rain yesterday evening and overnight and here are the rain totals for Greenville as recorded at 6:00 o’clock this morning.  At the Sewer Plant and the station on Sixth Street, 1.5 inches of rain were measured and 1.45 inches at Idler Lane and Rt. 140.

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COUNTY BOARD APPROVES FEE FOR CIVIL UNION LICENSE

The Bond County Board had a special meeting Tuesday night at the Courthouse.  The board approved the appointment of Kraig Hudson to the board of review.  Hudson was at the meeting and told board members he is studying appraisals, reviews, and the other materials providing him with information to enable him to betters serve on the board of review.  The county board also approved a $19.00 fee for a civil union license issued at the County Clerk’s office.  Illinois State Government passed legislation requiring all county clerks to start issuing civil union licenses by June 1, but had not included any specific guidelines as to the cost of those licenses.  The board chose $19.00 because that is the cost of a marriage license in Bond County.  The board will have another special meeting Tuesday, May 31 at 7:00 p.m. at the courthouse to address changes to the budget. 

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MG ROCKET TEAM 5th PLACE

The Mulberry Grove Science Engineering and Technology Club, organized under 4H, recently participated at one of the largest rocketry competitions in the world.  WGEL spoke with adult leader John Paine, of Mulberry Grove High School, about the results. Paine said the team placed fifth out of 100 teams at the Team America Rocketry Challenge Finals May 14 at The Plains, Virginia.  Paine said he and the team are very excited about their performance. Teams must design their rocket to fly to exactly 750 feet with a total flight time of 40-45 seconds.  The rocket must then deploy a parachute to bring the rocket sections, with a compartment containing an altimeter and a raw chicken egg, back to earth safely without so much as a crack in the egg. Members of the club received a silver cup for their high ranking, scholarship money which will be divided between the team members, and prize money which will cover trip expenses.  Members include Mulberry Grove High School students Scott Larson and Whitney Groves and William Bader, from Hillsboro High School.

 

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