Tornadoes Strike Midwest

It's been a crazy few weeks in the world environmental hazards, both far away and close to home. My last few blog postings have been in regards to the massive tsunami that hit the Philippines nearly two weeks ago. Now, we have a hazards that hit much closer to home, literally a 30 minute drive from my hometown. First off, let me just say I realize Twitter is the last thing that people want to hear about as far as a news source. However, this is how I initially, and really pretty instantly, heard about the tornadoes occurring in Illinois. Specifically what I was reading was the effects it was having close to home for me. I'm from a suburb of Milwaukee, so when I hear sirens going off in Menominee Falls, Wauwatosa, and downtown Milwaukee, I'm starting to think "dang, this is pretty close." Ultimately very little damage was done in Wisconsin, but our neighbors to the south got hit hard. The article I read really doesn't say much about total figures for the multiple tornadoes recorded, but it does state that at total of 16 tornadoes struck Illinois and northwest Indiana on Sunday. What I found particularly interesting about this article was the severity of some of these tornadoes, and just how powerful some were. As I said, the article I read was more about individual towns being hit instead of total figures for all the tornadoes combined. But for example, in the town of Washington, Illinois (near Peoria) the tornado there was measured an E-4. Now I had no clue what exactly that meant before reading the article, but apparently an E-5 is the strongest measurement on a scale for measuring tornadoes. This specific tornado in Washington had winds up 190 miles per hour and stretched 46 miles through two counties. Washington got the worst of the damage, with one dead, 120 injured, and as many as 500 homes damaged. This is just one of the many examples in this article. I've had few opportunities to write about something to close to Eau Claire, let alone so close to my hometown. This absolutely something that's major news regarding environmental hazards, so look for at least one other post about these tornadoes striking the Midwest. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-illinois-tornadoes-20131119,0,3693175.story