Second wind storm strikes county; 60 mph winds reported
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[A storm with winds estimated at 60 mph dealt the region a second blow Wednesday night.
The storm hit the area about 3 a.m., bringing a torrential downpour and strong winds. According to the National Weather Service, a deputy reported 60 mph wind in the county. About 3.5 inches of rain fell in parts of Southern Illinois.
Harrisburg appeared hardest hit in Saline County, with trees down in several areas of town, damage to several homes and structural damage at Taylor Field. No injuries have yet been reported.
The press box was lying on the track at Taylor Field in shambles this morning. School administrators, coaches and insurance agents were out early surveying the damage. School officials were trying to pull out what appeared to be salvageable -- some chairs, the public-address system -- before Roger Angelly brought heavy equipment and took away the rubble.
The scoreboard was also destroyed, lying in a twisted heap on the south side of the track beyond the end zone.
"I told (athletic director) Jay Thompson to go ahead and order a scoreboard. May as well get started on that," Superintendent Dennis Smith said.
The fence behind the scoreboard was also knocked down.
A shed belonging to the school district landed on two cars just beyond Taylor Field. Standing in the field, several downed trees could be seen, along with a shed on top of a house.
School officials hope to have graduation at Taylor Field on May 23 as scheduled.
"We don't think anything is going to change for graduation," Smith said.
Steve Williams of Williams and Associates was at Taylor Field doing a damage assessment.
School Architect Ed Kerkhover plans to come to the field later today.
"Our school architect is going to come today and see where we are," Smith said.
Damage was widespread in Harrisburg. The canopy at Citgo on Commercial Street was damaged. The construction trailer at Wal-Mart was flipped. Trees were uprooted and snapped up and down McHaney Street. A large tree hit the house at 612 Parish St. Damage was also reported along West College Street, Land Street and McHaney Street.
Deputy Jeff Oestreich was on Harrisburg's west side when the storm hit, performing his second job as a radio station engineer. He was in a radio van and out to get a transmitting station running. On state Route 13 at Carrier Mills Road at about 3 a.m. he estimated winds at 60 mph. On Lovers Lane a tree of small to medium size blew over onto the road and the tree's top fell on the van. Oestreich continued driving beneath the tree.
In the area of Sunset Lawn Cemetery on McHaney Road he noted a bizarre flashing bluish light.
"I thought the power lines had come down with transformers and they had exploded. It was a bluish-green flashing across the power lines that went to the east," Oestreich said.
He said the flashing corona around the power lines traveled east to Taylor Field and to Harrisburg High School before he lost sight of it. He theorized a straight line wind could have been blowing debris into the power lines, causing them to arc.
Harrisburg resident Amy Oxford reported damage from a fallen tree near her residence.
"I live at 205 W. Park Street in Harrisburg and my backyard got slammed by the storm during the night," Oxford said in an e-mail message. "A huge tree from my backyard has come down on my neighbor, Principal Scott Dewar of West Side School. It narrowly missed their home, but took out the fence, trampoline and backyard play set. They were lucky."
The last two wind storms have been particularly hard on trees. While Angelly said he is no expert, he believes the problem is a combination of ground saturation and strong winds. Angelly is an excavator and heavy equipment operator.
"That would be two things, if you put them together, that would probably be it," Angelly said.
The region also saw lots of freezing, thawing and re-freezing this winter and in early spring, Angelly said.
"The jobs I've tried to do, some of them I haven't been able to do because the ground is so wet," Angelly said.
The region is still recovering from a wind storm on Friday that included winds in excess of 90 mph. Most of the damage from that storm was west of Saline County, but Galatia had widespread damage and numerous trees and limbs were knocked down throughout the county.
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