Carbon Trace

We had a small tornado in Springfield last night that passed over my house. It tore up some trees and knocked over a light pole. It caused more damage further south of us. We lost power. But a City Utilities crew worked all night to replace the pole and the power lines near our house.

From a report posted on the News-Leader website:

A preliminary survey of storm damage this morning indicated an EF1 tornado packing winds of up to 100 miles an hour touched down southwest of West Republic Road and South Scenic Avenue and skipped northeast, also causing damage near South National Avenue and East Sunshine Street near St. John’s Hospital and further northeast around South Fremont and East Catalpa Street.

Here are a few pictures I took this morning after much of the damage had been cleared away.

This is a view looking toward my house. A large pine tree fell into my silver maple and tore off a massive branch. The street was blocked all night. The path of the tornado was roughly the direction I’m poining the camera.

Here’s what’s left of the base of a utility pole that snapped. This is on the Fremont Ave.  side of my house.

Here we’re looking south down Fremont Ave. on the other side of the intersection. That’s what’s left of the utility pole and a large pine tree. Fremont was blocked all night and well past rush hour this morning.

Things are getting back to normal this evening. We have power, although a few are still out on our street.

I walked to work today. I did not ride my bicycle because the forecast called for sustained winds of 20 to 30 miles per hour and gusts up to 50. But it never got that bad.

I expect to be able to ride to work tomorrow.

Technorati Tags: bicycle commuting, weather