LET'S PLAY TWISTER, LET'S PLAY RISK

The most memorable tornado outbreak in Illinois history occurred on April 19, 1996. No less than 30 tornadoes erupted and moved across the state during the afternoon and evening hours. Wind estimates of 170 miles per hour were associated the stronger tornadoes, some as strong as F-3 on the Fujita tornado intensity scale. Severe damage. Roofs and walls flew off houses; trains overturned; trees pulled from the ground; heavy trucks lifted off ground and thrown. To put this (30 tornados in one day) in perspective...the average number of tornadoes for a year in Illinois is about 27.

April 19, 1996 began as a typical friday for me in the college town of Urbana, Illinois... Had to attend a couple of classes, teach Structure 5 at the IEI, give some tech support to a couple of users, get the LinguaCenter schedule ready for the upcoming week... At 3 PM, my wife and I left the University for our weekly supermarket adventure at Meijer's... think Hipermas x 2...

5:30 PM... still the sun shone high in the sky... summer was near so the sun was setting at around 7 or 7:30 PM... my favorite station - Mix 94.5 - had interrupted their usual mix of yesterday and today to report tornado outbreaks in Decatur... 40 miles away to the South East... "they're moving towards us" Afternoon Dave reported... "Everyone is advised to seek shelter"... but the sun shone high in the calm summer sky... On our way home, we had to cross the highway that lead straight to Decatur... I looked toward the horizon and saw something that gave me cold chills down my spine... A blood red sky... almost as if a nuclear bomb had exploded in Decatur... I shitted my pants... for real --- the scariest night of my life was about the begin.

We drove home to Orchard Downs as fast as my Chevy Nova would take us... unloaded the supermarket bags, went inside and started to wait in panic... the funny thing about tornadoes is that nobody really knows anything about them... nobody understands how and why they are formed... how and why they fade away... or how and why their funnel changes paths easily... all that is left to do is wait and wait... without the slightest idea if you're gonna make it through the night...

20 minutes later, I'm looking out the window... nothing seems to be happening... the sun still remained fixed upon a clear blue sky... but then it began to change... the sky started to turn flamming orange... it was almost as if an eclipse had suddenly decided to come on down... then it got dark... red blood dark... and we ducked under the dinning room table... and made love... am I the only one who gets horny in the wake of mortal danger?

6:45 PM... the city sirens wailed at the top of their lungs... it was showtime!... next, a furious hail storm hit our roof with a vengeance... it felt and sounded as if angry bullets were trying to pry through the tin roof and cement ceiling above us... before we knew it... all the windows in the house had madly swung open... and you felt the strength and rage of the wind... and small ornaments and papers started to fly around the living room... I felt that was my last night on Earth... I felt terrified... we ducked under the bed and waited for the wind to take the roof and everything in the house -including us- with it....

But then... nothing... nothing at all... it had suddenly stopped... and the strangest, weirdest and most uncomfortable calm you can ever imagine invaded the neighborhood... the electric power had gone out... so I stepped outside and the sun was calmly setting at last just as if nothing had happened. It was nearly 8 PM...

I turned to the radio... most local stations were out... I could get some stations from nearby cities... Decatur...Springfield... all accounting destruction and death... 25 houses devasted over there... 10 people dead and 125 injured here and there... the rest was silence

The next morning we went down the block to survey the damage... the tornado had passed just a couple of blocks south of my house... and it had made its presence quite obvious to anyone... just 2 blocks south from my house... houses were completely destroyed... some roof less... some wall less.. some just gone... I had never seen anything like that....

The tornado had continued through the corn field heading east and landed furiously in the nearby village of Ogden... it had been destroyed completely... 174 people injured... about 25 dead... and many more were left homeless... quite a sight, really!... and as we drove through the debris... and took a look at the trees and cars turned upside down... I could not help to think that my life was spared that evening... that if the tornado had turned made the slightest of left turns... I could have become a statistic... and I would not be here writing this blog.