BS: Art in Peru-- tornado close but we fine

Subject: RE: BS: Art in Peru-- tornado close but we fine
From: Amos
Date: 22 Apr 04 - 04:58 PM

Everytime I open this thread expecting to read about pre-Columbian pottery!! :>)

A

Subject: RE: BS: Art in Peru-- tornado close but we fine
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Apr 04 - 04:36 PM

Sure glad it missed you folks, Art. And, thanks for the wonderful bit of history...you sure do have a way of telling about you.:-)

luvyakat & Rog

Subject: RE: BS: Art in Peru-- tornado close but we fine
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Apr 04 - 09:51 AM

Lasalle-Peru and Utica are grand places. I've been there several times, and I'm glad you're okay, Art.

I've lived through more tornadoes than I care to count. I once bicycled through one that passed over the town during my ride home; not an experience I'd care to repeat (and wouldn't have done in the first place if I'd known about it before I started). Yes, I got wet. I got very, very, very wet. And I was wearing one of those god-awful nylon shirts, so I was very, very uncomfortable as well as wet.

There's nothing to do but take cover. As a point of interest, tornadoes have touched down in every State (except perhaps Hawai'i).

Do what you can to help the survivors, Art, and keep you head down. I hope that the Chicago developers don't get even a toehold!

Subject: RE: BS: Art in Peru-- tornado close but we fine
From: Art Thieme
Date: 21 Apr 04 - 10:24 PM

Utica, Illinois was a canal town---on the Illinois-Michigan Canal that ran 90 miles or so from Lake Michican to the Illinois River at the twin towns of LaSalle-Peru. Quite a lot of history happened around here. LaSalle the explorer built his fortifications at Starved Rock in the 1600s. When Marquette and Jolliet came through on the river--also in the 1600s---they found a native (but not yet native-American) village right where Utica is now with over 1,500 dwellings. (Naturally, they said mass there.) A good friend of mine who farms the fertile fields above the river near there has picked up many thousands of arrowheads just by watching the furrows his tractor turns over every spring. In modern times, Utica, Illinois was the Gateway to Starved Rock State Park. (Named for when a band of Potowatomies were starved out at the top of that high pinnacle by the Irroquoise tribe. [Please, pardon my spelling. I know it's terrible.]

But Duffy's Tavern in downtown Utica had the best burgers in the world, and great beer as well. When Kate Early came here for visits, that's where we'd most likely always seem to wind up.

But Duffy's looks like it was bombed, and much of the town is gone. The photos I saw today look nothing like the town we almost moved to 25 years ago. Four more dead were dug out tonight.

I just wanted to tell you something about this place that was just a nice little Midwestern town that had some good history to it and it was situated in some of the nicest scenery you'll find in Illinois---a state which is otherwise a pretty flat piece of land.

Recently a large developer was on the verge of building a humongous resort thing of some kind in little Utica to take advantage of the many folks who use Starved Rock State Park's fine trails and bald eagle population for a great weekend getaway from Chicago's sprawl. Now it seems their plans must be changed. But I've been having a horrible fantasy today that now the developers will go to the survivors of Utica and say that they'll be glad to rebuild the town for everyone "if you'll just give us carte blanche to do it our way---meaning any way we want to do it.----God forbid !

Like 9/11, after the first shock is some months down the road in the rearview mirror, I'll realize that the past is the past and we need to live in the present. But I'm gonna be thinking about this nice little town for a long time.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: BS: Art in Peru-- tornado close but we fine
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 21 Apr 04 - 01:15 AM

Art

Our "season" is about due to start. About all we've seen so far this year is a couple of fairly mild thunderstorms - although we've had some pretty good (straight-line - 45 to 50 mph) wind with them. People south and west of us have had some "unsettled weather," but it hasn't really reached here yet.

I probably don't have to tell you, but any "catastrophe" in closely spaced towns can have "ripples" for a while, and it's not uncommon for subtle water/sewage problems to pop up a few days (or weeks) after something like this; and the power may need watching. The 'skeeters will probably pop up anywhere the drains have run over, if it's warm enough; and the snicks and sewer rats may start to roam.

While I don't recommend keeping the bathtub full just to have drinking water, common sense things like making sure you've got the pantry reasonably stocked, and the stuff in the "storage freezer" stacked so you can leave it shut for a while if the power drops are just part of taking care of yourself. It also gives you something to think about 'till things settle down.

Take care.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Art in Peru-- tornado close but we fine
From: Allan C.
Date: 21 Apr 04 - 01:01 AM

Glad you're okay, Art!

Subject: RE: BS: Art in Peru-- tornado close but we fine
From: Art Thieme
Date: 21 Apr 04 - 12:24 AM

Peru and LaSalle are two Illinois towns that share a common street. We are on the Illinois River which runs east and west right here. This tornado followed the river for a while and that might be why it missed us. But I think it may have dropped all that sucked up water right on us. Our windows never were so clean. I just heard that a friend watched it go by as he stood in his doorway in the town of LaSalle. Carol and I used to walk the six miles from LaSalle to Utica, IL----down the towpath of the Illinois-Michigan Canal. That town was hit pretty hard but details are sketchy. They're working on getting injured folks out of collapsed buildings I've heard.

Art

Subject: RE: BS: Art in Peru-- tornado close but we fine
From: MMario
Date: 20 Apr 04 - 10:22 PM

Glad to hear you were missed, Art - Had a close brush with a tornado a few years back - never want to be that close again! Had a new puppy at the time that had to be quarantined from the other family dog - but the safest place put them together. The funnel basically formed directly over our house - but was moving so fast that by the time it touched down it was several miles away. Still - If I never see cloud moving like that again it will be too soon!

Subject: RE: BS: Art in Peru-- tornado close but we fine
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Apr 04 - 10:18 PM

Art, did the storm wash any of the viruses or worms out of your computer? ;-)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Art in Peru-- tornado close but we fine
From: Amos
Date: 20 Apr 04 - 09:44 PM

Jeeze, Art, dinna be givin' me heart thumpitations like that!! :>)

A

Subject: RE: BS: Art in Peru-- tornado close but we fine
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 Apr 04 - 09:44 PM

Yeah Art, we're waiting for them here. I just this minute was watching the Weather Channel and thinking about you.....and HERE YOU ARE..........and I'm glad to see it!!!!   Stay low!

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Art in Peru-- tornado close but we fine
From: open mike
Date: 20 Apr 04 - 08:59 PM

and i hope it is the end of danger for you..
april tends to be tornado season in the
mid west...and again in the autumn as i
recall. glad you are safe. hope everyone
else made it thru o.k.

(i thought you were on a vacation in
south america there for awhile!!)

Subject: BS: Art in Peru-- tornado close but we fine
From: Art Thieme
Date: 20 Apr 04 - 08:42 PM

Hey folks,

A bunch of tornados swept through hear about an hour ago, but Peru, Illinois --our town--got missed. Not so some towns and places real close by. Still, I never saw it rain this hard since I went through another one on the Mississippi River.

All's well that ends well, I suppose.

Art