St Louis Hit with 92 mph winds Awful winds

[lovuian]

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/916EBEC69E47CAD5862571B1000A7CE6?OpenDocument

A powerful storm system pounded the St. Louis area early this evening, packing wind gusts that pelted people in cars with debris, toppled street lights and snapped branches.

At least 400,000 households lost power. Meteorologists with the National Weather Service said high winds, lightning and thunderstorms smacked most of the St. Louis metro area from St. Charles County east to Madison County.

"We didn't have much warning," said St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay in a news conference. Commenting on reaction from one emergency official he spoke to, "this is one of the worst storms he could remember to hit the city."

St. Louis Police Chief Joe Mokwa reported three collapsed buildings in the region and one injury that had been reported -- a woman who was 8 months pregnant. Advertisement

The storm moved quickly north of St. Louis County, but turned south. Meteorologists said the storm was unusual because "the gust front" blew through the area first, tipping over tractor trailers and shattering car windows, toppling trees and power lines and pushing dust and debris throughout the area.

The Cardinals game against the Atlanta Braves was delayed by the storm. At least four people were taken from the stadium in ambulances with unknown injuries and windows were blown out of the press box.

Mokwa said MetroLink was shut down, mostly because of the electrical problems, but also because of a tree down across the tracks at the Saint Louis University stop. Metro buses were being brought in to ferry Cardinals fans from Busch Stadium who had arrived at the stadium by train.
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Scary Stuff!!!

[Purveyor]

1. Keep that crap away from here...just got power back

from our monday night storm here in Michigan!

[lovuian]

2. My Mom and dad have no AC and No water

this is amazing stuff!!! Global Warming incident... almost like a Hurricane hit it...

[bling bling]

18. I hope they get power back soon.

Heat index 117 tomorrow. I don't think it gets a whole lot worse than the heat/humidity we've had the last couple of days.

The storm tonight was awesome (as in powerful). I haven't seen the trees blowing like that before that I can remember. We have branches all over the yard now, and beach balls and other toys that blew over from the neighbors. My parents heavy glass-top table was blown into their swimming pool. Outside had that greenish tornado look to it that lasted for over an hour. I heard lightening strike a transformer somewhere in my neighborhood. All the houses across the street from us lost power. Fortunately, our side of the street was spared. After the storm was over lightening bolts streaked across the sky, several at a time, every few seconds It looked like electric eels lighting up as they swim. I've never seen anything like that before. It was incredible.

On the bright side, the rain brought temperary relief from the dreadful heat. It's in the 70's now. It feels like heaven, except for the 83% humidity factor.

[lovuian]

19. Thanks they live in North County and are fine now

but probably will have to leave to either my brother or find a hotel with AC thing is probably lots of people will be doing the same... 500,000 people without power is a bunch of people...

[jayctravis]

34. Boil order north of 70 :( n/t

[greccogirl]

22. Global warming incident?

It was a tornado.

[lovuian]

23. if it was a tornado it was huge... Tornado sirens didn't go off

St Louis was experiencing very hot temperatures close to the 100's

I say it was very freaky and because of the high temperatures is a wake up call that mother Nature has her ways...Yes Global Warming incident...

[Zhade]

32. ...that may have been caused by conditions exacerbated by global warming?

I think we'll continue to see a lot of freaky weather as we're seeing now thanks to global warming, don't you?

[Sydnie]

3. I feel for you

We had a bad storm here in Mass last night and are preparing for the tropical storm to pass through tomorrow too.

Hope everything gets back to normal for you really soon.

[lovuian]

4. Take care Sydnie...

Strange weather!!!

[orwell]

5. I'm so happy...

...that our great Christian president along with his corporate chorus has assured us that global warming is just a fantasy.

Otherwise I might be getting worried...

[saged52]

6. scary stuff -

I live 30 minutes outside of Saint Louis - it was just reported that over 500,000 households, etc. were without power. Ameren UE (the power company), being the proverbial corporates, have laid off hundreds of union workers and hired an over-abundance of bosses. 'They will attempt to restore power as soon as possible.' If past history matters - it will be fall before these poor people see electricity again.
It is a bad situation for that city and surrounding areas - thankfully not many injuries reported so far.
Forecast is for 100+ degrees tomorrow.

[jayctravis]

35. In the metro east, we were told to not be surprised at

3-5 days.

[LSK]

7. Chicago had 65mph winds the other night

It looked like a small hurricane went through here the next morning.

Global warming? :scared:

[The Anti-Neo Con]

8. I'm here in St. Louis.

I'm doin OK, I was in an area of town that didn't get hit too bad. Thankfully I have power here.

I really do hope they get the power back to people who lost it very soon b/c it's supposed to be 101* tomorrow.

Oh, here's a pic of the sky I took after the storms passed, this should give you some idea of how bad it was.

[lovuian]

13. No Sirens let residents know it was coming

Amazing stuff ...

[Clark2008]

15. You know, that's beautiful, though.

Nothing Man can create is that awesome.

[lovuian]

29. Its amazing how large that storm system

:wow:

[uppityperson]

9. tornado report there too, interesting link here

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/060719_rpts.html

[lovuian]

11. video stream

http://www.kmov.com/sharedcontent/VideoPlayer/videoPlayer.php?vidId=76732

[lovuian]

12. my brother is stuck in Downtown

trees lights and glass blocking the roads and Metrolink is down baseball fans will be taking the bus home...

[InternalDialogue]

10. Wow! 92 m.p.h.!

That's frightening. I'm in Denver, generally safe from lots of the violent weather the rest of the country has. I can deal with the snow, the hail, the high temperatures in summer. But high winds scare me. Puts me on edge.

Fingers crossed for everyone out there, especially anyone in a spot where those winds might do real damage.

[kestrel91316]

16. We got some pretty nasty chinook winds up in Ft. Collins when I

lived there. Gusts up to 140 mph took out a weather station one spring..........

[lovuian]

20. Storms cut power, snap trees, topple trucks across region

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/916EBEC69E47CAD5862571B1000A7CE6?OpenDocument

snip..

lost power, Metrolink was shut down and Lambert Field was at one-third capacity.

"This is one of the worst storms we can all remember to hit the city of St. Louis in recent years," said St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay.

The storm brewed quickly north of St. Louis County and swept south shortly after 7 p.m. Meteorologists said the storm was unusual not because of its path but because a powerful "gust front" preceded the rain and thunder through the area, bringing widespread damage from St. Charles County in the west to Madison County in the east but hitting St. Louis and St. Louis County hardest. Skies darkened with blowing dust, shingles flew from roofs and windows were shattered before a drop of rain fell. Blowing dust and debris and then
snip...

Near Lambert Field, strong winds ripped off part of the roof at the terminal and dumped it across several lanes of Interstate 70. Power was out to all but the East Terminal but the airport was open to some flights but with heavy delays.

Drivers heading east on I-70 near the airport could see camper shells strewn across the highway, twisted sheet metal wrapped around light posts and at least one burning building east of the airport.

Luther Lowe of Little Rock, Ark., in town for the national College Democrats convention at St. Louis University, wondered, "Does this always happen in St. Louis?"

[Clark2008]

14. Mother Nature is pissed as Hell

And, I don't know about you, but I'm becoming scared shitless about her.

[lovuian]

17. Me too Clark... Two trailer homes flipped on the highway and

Eads bridge closed from building falling on it... Its open again...

[The Anti-Neo Con]

21. St. Louis has quite a history of violent weather.

This was probably the worst ever.

http://www.usgennet.org/usa/mo/county/stlouis/cyclone-autoplay.htm

[DoyBoy]

24. I was leaving work at the time it started blowing through.

I live and work downtown and around 7:00 all hell broke loose. As I was leaving pieces of the building I work in were blowing off (including a 6 to 8 foot piece of metal from the roof). When I got home to my aprtment building, I found that at least one person had a window blown out as well as the sign on the side of the building destroyed. When I got to my place on the 21st floor it had started raining. I couldn't see past a block from my building. It was one of the worst storms I had seen ( and I was in Florida during hurricane Andrew). What I saw of downtown was a mess!

[lovuian]

25. Parents still without electricity and Boil water order

for people waiting for electricity a number to call i-314-1000

will give estimated time till electricity restored

its pretty busy number right now...
Parents staying at hotel since the heat is so bad

[Tsiyu]

26. OMG My daughter is there

Gonna get off the puter and check phone messages.

[lovuian]

27. Hope Everything is Ok Buddy

Its weather St. Louis have never seen before...
People in the airport last night were without lights and used their cell phones as lights to get around...

[Tsiyu]

28. Thanks. She's good. Just spoke with her.

She has power in her hotel and actually called me last night after the storms. She mentioned them, but I assumed more took place after we spoke.


She thinks I'm a worry wart, but that's a mom.

Haven't been to St. Louis in a while myself, though we enjoyed our trip up the arch and down in the museum the last time we were there. I acccidentally left my purse near the IMAX theater and it was returned, so I like St Louey!.

The arch would surely be an awesome place to ride out a storm! Sorry for all your troubles! :hug:

[lovuian]

30. Humane Society of St Louis has a cooling center for pets

They will pick up your pet but have a cage shortage... Just letting people know...

[lovuian]

31. National Guard called in to help evacuate

people from sweltering home...

[lovuian]

37. Update St.Louis got hit with 70mph winds again and Electric

outages has gone back to over 400,000 households without electricity

Hang in there St louisans

more storms tonite

[lovuian]

33. Update friend works at the hospital in St Lou and nursing

homes without AC are bringing their patients to the hospitals there... the Hospitals are PACKED!!!

[jayctravis]

36. One blessed thing; so far I have heard of *no* storm casualties.

Many people went last night or today to the hospital for heat or stress, but so far no weather related deaths.

[lovuian]

39. That is Awesome heres the news report its 570000

http://www.stltoday.com/

Less than two days after a violent thunderstorm inflicted a record knockout of electricity in the St. Louis area, a second big storm roared through at midday today and snuffed power to more than 200,000 customers.
The National Weather Service said more such storms are possible through the afternoon.

Before the new storm struck, said an AmerenUE spokeswoman, repair crews had restored service to about 270,000 of the 590,000 customers who had been without power since Wednesday evening's storm. The worst damage and most outages from today's new storm were roughly from St. Charles County, eastward through north St. Louis County to Granite City, Collinsville and Mascoutah, and continuing southeasterly through southern Illinois.

As of 2 p.m. today, Ameren reported 570,000 customers without power. That's a running total, including those still out since Wednesday. A spokeswoman said it wasn't known how many of today's 200,000 outages amounted to double-whammies upon customers that had lost power Wednesday and had been reconnected by the roughly 2,700 repair workers, including helpers from utilities in nearby states.

Advertisement Also, Missouri American Water lifted its boil advisory early this morning for the residents of north St. Louis County. Labratory tests showed that the water had not been compromised after the treatment center lost power Thursday evening, authorities said.

The weather service said the new storms brought winds of 50 mph, with some gusts as high was 70 mph -- almost as wild as the 80 mph winds that shattered trees and ripped down power lines throughout the heart of the metro area Wednesday evening. The new storms also toppled trees or ripped away limbs, once again downing power lines.

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Still more storms to come...

[Hubert Flottz]

38. Al Gore ain't lying...

The weather is getting VERY strange.