A veteran National Weather Service official says as many as four tornadoes were on the ground at one time south of Greenville on Wednesday afternoon.

"It's kind of incredible to see so many tornadic tracks," said Ron Przybylinski, science and operations officer for the National Weather Service at Weldon Spring. "It's a series of small tornadoes on the leading edge of the storm system."

Przybylinski, who has spent 17 years with the weather service, said Thursday that his findings were verified by several eyewitnesses.

He now believes that the storm front formed over the Madison-Macoupin county line, where it derailed a Norfolk Southern train, then traveled southeast to Greenville. Later, it struck Kinmundy, where 16 homes sustained damage. Three of those were mobile homes that were destroyed.

Greenville took the biggest jolt. The tornadoes peeled the roof off the Cardinal Hill nursing home, pummeled the South Central FS grain silos and rolled six tractor-trailers off nearby Interstate 70. State officials said 19 businesses in Greenville were damaged along with 38 homes, a church and an apartment complex.

"We could feel the roof going," said Judy Weiss, a nursing supervisor at Cardinal Hill. "It was like train noise. It was really noisy."

Przybylinski said the tornadoes were spread over a 1 3/4-mile front but were comparatively moderate, with wind from 73 to 112 miles per hour. On the Fujita scale, which ranges from F0 to F5, the tornadoes would be rated at F1.

Vince Acquaviva, a meteorologist with the weather service, said the tornadoes were spawned by a typical spring storm, where warm, moist air out of the south collided with colder air from the north.

Most witnesses to the storm said that as the storm passed over them, the day turned into night

Bond County Sheriff Jeff Brown was patrolling southwest of Greenville when the storm put his car up on two wheels.

"I saw debris starting to fly, and then I couldn't see anything," he said. "It was a pretty good ride for about 30 seconds."
Reporter Rick Pierce: E-mail: rpierce@post-dispatch.co

From KMOV-TV Web Site

Hail and high winds cause damage in Illinois towns
05/01/2002
Reporter: Mike O'Connell, News 4
(KMOV) - Wednesday afternoon, a line of storms moved through the area, leaving behind some damage. Most of the damage occurred in Livingston, Greenville and Staunton, Illinois.

Greenville was hit hard. It was pounded by hail -- some of it the size of golf balls -- and high winds.

Two miles south of Staunton near the Madison and Macoupin county line, strong winds knocked over 12 cars of a freight train. Eight of them each contained 10 new automobiles.

To the east in New Douglas, the high winds took a roof off a barn and tore up grain silos. Large trees were uprooted and power lines snapped.
In Greenville, Ron Stief found a tree downed on top of his car. A Value City store experienced heavy damage, the parking lot full of debris. Workers at other businesses attended to damaged roofs.

At Greenville Ford, hail damaged about 40 cars. Flying debris damaged a few others and a large window in the showroom was shattered. Illinois Power reports about 2,500 customers are without power as of late Wednesday night, the majority of them in the Greenville area. About 100 linemen were out working to restore power Wednesday night.

IDOT Salt Dome

Downed Power Lines

McCasland Truck Service

Steve Schmitt Motor Company

Loyd Farm

Ferrill Gas

Hediger Farm

South Central FS Grain Bins

From KMOV

Bad storm leaves big mess in Greenville
05/02/2002

Greenville, IL (KMOV.com) -- The clean up is underway in Greenville, Illinois after a powerful storm thundered through the Bond County community on Wednesday.

The heaviest damage was centered in an area just north of Interstate 70 in a business and residential area.

Thursday morning utility crews were busy repairing downed power

lines and trimming back broken tree limbs.

An old barn, a complex of bean silos and a building in a storage center seemed to take the brunt of the storm.

The old brick barn was leveled with bricks and lumber piled in a heap where the structure once stood.

The silos lost their lids to the wind, and the walls near the top crinkled in like old aluminum cans.

The roof to the storage center was scattered across nearby fields.

One crumpled section of the storage center's roof, a section of metal about the size of a SUV, landed in the front yard of a mobile home some 500 yards away. It sat perched in the center of the lawn like a strange piece of modern art, or an oversized lawn ornament. The mobile home did not appear to be damaged.

Workers were busy straightening up at the Value City discount store where the storm twisted and toppled the pole-framed greenhouse on the parking lot. The store managed to reopen for business Thursday.

Next door at the Ford dealership, plywood already covered showroom windows shattered by the wind and debris. There were reports several cars had been damaged.

All over this immediate area shingles from a hotel and homes litter the streets like autumn leaves.

Broken trees and downed limbs show the force of the storm. In one trailer park a car can be seen peeking out from beneath a huge tree limb that crashed to the ground. The trailers seemed to weather the storm pretty well.

Illinois State highway crews have been spending their day repairing dozens of signs along that were damaged along Interstate 70. The force of the powerful wind gusts snapped small signs with wooden posts, while larger metal signs were bent back and over as if they had been sheared off as the storm burst by.

No word yet on whether the storm that hit this small town around 1 p.m. Wednesday was a tornado or just a powerful storm.

There were no reports of serious injuries.

Greenville is located about 45 miles east of St. Louis.

From WGEL Radio - The WGEL Daily
5-2-2002
STORM ROCKS GREENVILLE AND SURROUNDING AREAS

Severe thunderstorms ripped through the greater Greenville area yesterday afternoon beginning around 1:30-1:45. Damage was widespread throughout the community. Including 3 unconfirmed reports of funnel clouds sightings from various parts of Bond County.

In town, most damage consisted of downed trees and large branches. There were also many reports of downed power lines and trees in power lines. Limbs damaged several vehicles and nearly all-major intersections experienced significant flooding. There was one report of a tree limb in a living room at Shannon and Asbury in Greenville.

Many downtown businesses sent employee's home early due to power outages. Illinois power said late last night that except for the Southeast portion of Greenville most power should be back on by midnight. Southeast Greenville should be back on this morning.

The strongest damage occurred south of town. Many power lines were tilted and signs were destroyed. Significant roof damage occurred at DeMoulin and water and debris rained in on several employees. Reports of damage also came in from Steve Schmidt motors, Scott package liqueur and the belfry.

The grain bins at south central FS caved in and sent debris flying as far as the fields near Circle W Tire and Southwestern Electric. Greenville Ford Mercury experienced major window damage.

The area between rt. 40 and elm St. and rt. 40 and Rt. 127 is littered with debris. Damage has been reported at various trailer parks in the area.

Camps Amoco lost their sign, the Kingsbury campus apartments report a loss of fencing.

Bond County unit 2 schools delayed dismissing student and fourth St. was closed for clean up.

More damage reports are expected to come in through the next few hours. No fatalities have been reported but there have been unconfirmed reports of injuries. Police Chief Lou Lorton told WGEL Cardinal Hill nursing home lost power and their building was damaged, residents were transferred to Fair Oaks and Alhambra Care Center. A delivery truck was overturned on 4th street.

The Elm Street Storage Units were damaged. Lester Harnetiaux told WGEL renters would have a chance to inspect their Storage Units starting at 9am this morning.

Lena at Scott's Package told us a shed on that property was destroyed, their Dumpster was blown across the street into the bowling alley parking lot, and several cars parked in their lot had their windows blown out. Workers at the Southern Edge construction site were on the job when the South Wall blew out, fortunately no one was hurt.

A spokesmen for the Bond County Highway department told WGEL due to Illinois Power replacing power poles Old National Trail also known as alternate Route 40 from Mo Cow Mountain to D&L Disposal would be closed all night except for local traffic. We'll keep you informed, as more information about yesterday's storms and damage becomes available

Picture & Story From WGEL Radio

GREENVILLE TREE A TORNADO CASUALTY

A Greenville landmark is the latest casualty to be discovered in the aftermath of Wednesday's tornadoes. The Greenville Tree, a large white oak that served as the model for the logo for the City of Greenville, fell last week as a result of high winds that ripped through our area. WGEL spoke with

David Patrick of the Zanheiser Institute at Greenville College and he told us how he discovered the loss.

Patrick toured the Hoiles Gardens, behind the old Doug and Sue Hoiles home on Beaumont in Greenville to see if the timber sustained any major damage in the storm. There was only one casualty--the Greenville tree. It is a large white oak, estimated to be 300-400 years old. It was the model for the Greenville logo. It is on the ground with its roots sticking up in the air. Zanheiser staff knew the tree would lose a few major limbs in strong winds, but never thought it would completely fall. It will take a long time to section the tree and get it cleared out. It's a big disappointment.

Patrick said crews would begin work on clearing the tree out of the timber in the next few days. Zanheiser crews are also formulating ideas to make portions of the tree available to local historians who would like to obtain a piece of this Greenville landmark.

From The National Weather Service

PRELIMINARY DAMAGE SURVEY FOR BOND AND MARION COUNTIES IN SOUTHWEST AND SOUTH-CENTRAL ILLINOIS

National Weather Service personnel at St. Louis conducted a survey of the damage over parts of Bond and Marion counties in southwest and south-central Illinois. Preliminary results are...two swaths of damage were found. Most of the damage was due to weak tornadoes from a severe thunderstorm that moved rapidly southeast across the area.

...First Path of Damage (Central Bond County)...
The first swath of damage was from six tornado touchdowns across parts of central Bond County Illinois. Three of the six initial tornado damage paths (Tornadoes 1, 2, and 3) began three to four miles west of Greenville Illinois along Highway 140. Seven barns and machine sheds sustained varying degrees of damage along and 1.5 miles south of Highway 140. Sheet metal from some of these structures were tossed over 100 yards away. A number of large trees were stripped mainly over the upper half of the tree. Large branches were tossed as much as 50 to 75 yards away. The tornadic damage paths were relatively narrow... less than 30 yards wide...and began between 1:35 and 1:40 PM CDT. Damage intensity varied from F0 to F1 on the Fujita Scale.

Two other tornado touchdowns (Tornadoes 4 and 5) formed south of the first three, one half mile north of the intersection of county roads 900 north and 800 east and one mile east-northeast of this intersection respectively. Two barns sustained damage from the southern most tornado while numerous large trees and pines were severed along both paths. Similar to the first three tracks, these damage tracks were relatively narrow less than 30 yards wide while damage intensity were rated F0 and F1.

These tornadoes initially formed between 1:35 and 1:40 PM CDT. Tornado #6 formed approximately one mile west of Greenville at approximately 1:40 PM CDT.

Tornadoes 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 crossed Old National Road, one half to one and one-half miles southwest of Greenville around 1:40 PM CDT. Four homes along Old National Road sustained varying degrees of damage while numerous large trees and pines were severely damage or destroyed. One garage was completely destroyed. A few large pines were tossed over 100 yards into an open field. The width of the damage varied from 30 to 40 yards while damage intensity was rated F1. Along county road 975,
just southwest of Greenville...Tornado #2 damaged two machine sheds and one home sustained damage.

Between 1:35 and 1:40 PM CDT...several witnesses located south and southwest of Greenville observed four tornadoes simultaneously to their northwest. The tornadoes were not rotating around each other, rather they were aligned north-south and moved rapidly east-southeast.

After 1:40 PM, Tornado #6 nearly destroyed another large machine shed spreading pieces of sheet metal one-half mile to the east. Tornado #1 crossed fourth street...then hit Hillview Nursing Home causing mainly roof damage. A nearby small shed was also destroyed. The tornado continued to move east damaging three storage sheds, another building and finally causing minor roof damage to two homes. Several trees along this part of the track were severed. Tornado #2 also crossed fourth street damaging a rural cooperative electric radio tower and the F&S Grain storage bins. Two large metal grain bins that were fifteen percent filled were damaged while two other bins sustained some damage. The elevators connecting the bins were also damaged.

Pieces of the elevators were tossed over 70 yards away and driven into the ground at 45 to 60 degree angles. This tornado was rated F1 intensity. Tornado #3 just missed a car dealership...however it caused significant damage to a barn and machine shed and some damage to a farm home one-fifth of a mile south of the F&S storage bins. Damage width contined to be less than 50 yards while damage intensity was rated F1. Tornado #5 crossed U.S 40 just west of Dudleyville road and caused tree damage and minor damage to a home. This tornado was rated F0. Tornadoes #3 and #5 were also responsible for overturning five tractor trailers on Interstate 70 southwest of the intersection of Highway 127 and Interstate 70. There was one minor injury.

The total length of damage paths for Tornadoes 1, 2, and 3 were 6.0, 6.5, and 7.5 miles respectively. The total length of damage paths for tornadoes 4, 5, and 6 were 2.5, 5.0 and 2.5 miles respectively. Over thirty-five structures were damaged by the series of tornadoes.