Wind speeds as high as 110 mph tore through Vermilion County on Thursday.
The storms snapped and uprooted trees, leaving them strewn across roadways, as well as sending parts of an elementary school roof flying.
The National Weather Service released its report on the severe weather outbreak.
The NWS says there was a tornado in the Kickapoo State Park Recreation area, as well as one in the Fithian area. Both tornadoes have been declared E-F1s, with the Kickapoo one reaching wind speeds as high as 110 mph in parts of its 13.6-mile long journey and 100 yards wide from 7:39 to 7:53 p.m on Thursday.
The report indicated the tornado paralleled Interstate 74 to the north. Damage reports show “significantly damaged” outbuildings, with the “greatest damage” happening in the Kickapoo State Recreation Area snapping around 250 trees.
This tornado also journeyed into Danville, where it lifted along Hungry Hollow Road before continuing its destruction. The report also says the damage in Danville itself has been determined to be caused by 80-110 mph straight-line winds.
There are multiple damage points throughout Vermilion County as well.
And the Mark Denman Elementary school, which is planned to be an all-kindergarten building next fall, suffered roof damage, with part of the gymnasium roof found across the street with part of it lodged into a house. The early estimate of damage to the roof from the NWS is 20%.
During the District 118 meeting on Monday, board members briefly talked about the damage to the roof.
“We do not have internet at Mark Denman as of now,” said Tyler Weidenburner. “We also don’t have half a gym roof at Mark Denman right now.”
District 118 Board President Darlene Halloran added, “you have it, it’s just on the ground.”
At this time, the district sees no need for any school year delays from the damage. And they did not lose any food stored during the outage because school district members moved the food to buildings that had power.
Inside Danville, Lincoln Park suffered extensive damage.
The city has closed Lincoln Park to cleaned up from the debris and broken trees.
“Due to the severe storm that came through last Thursday, Lincoln Park sustained significant damage and is currently closed until further notice,” the city shared on its Parks & Recreation Facebook page. “Please stay out of the park and allow the crews the space they need to safely clean up and assess the damage.”
Public Works Director, David Ruwe, says Lincoln Park is the most impacted area damage-wise.
“Quite a few trees that have fallen over, some have uprooted, some have broken off, some are leaning against other trees, some are down on the ground, and they’re still hanging limbs that are broken off into that to the point that it’s pretty dangerous to be in the park,” Ruwe said.
He added it will remain closed until “we are able to get a tree crew in there and remove the hazards, just a pretty, pretty big amount of hazards at the moment.”
“It was pretty scattered throughout town, pretty evenly, minus a couple heavy spots, just, a limb here, limb there, a tree there…” Ruwe said.