Yates City

On Sunday we gave Katie her birthday present from us parents: a couple of bags of sand for her sandbox. She was pleased and she and Kris played with her sand and water toys.

On Sunday evening I drove over to Elmwood to check out the damage from the F2 tornado that got uncomfortably close to our house. Elmwood is still barricaded off, but I drove a few miles upwind to Yates City. The damage track was hard to find - the foot high corn looked OK, but I found metal debric in the field and a sagging section of fence that was loaded with muddy plant debris. It impressed me how blessed Yates City was: only the northernmost buildings (a barn and a shed - note the trailer flipped over) in this small town got hit, leaving a nearby house unscathed, I think. A video clip of the tornado is on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhaNKNu0P8k. Had the tornado been a couple blocks south it would have passed through the center of town. Other towns in addition to these got hit (15 tornadoes were reported in central Illinois that night), notably Streator.

In other news Kris started soccer camp tonight. It was blissfully cloudy and cool, though it is beginning to get buggy. I found a puddle that was dark and turbulent with baby mosquitoes. All this wet weather is raising concerns about mosquitoes in the area.