Inland Hurricane
From the Southern Illinoisan's web site:
On the afternoon of May 8, 2009 a storm unlike many had ever seen struck Southern Illinois and parts of southeast Missouri.
The National Weather Service in Paducah, Ky. recorded peak wind gusts at more than 80 miles per hour in Marion and Carbondale, with sustained winds blowing at 68 mph. One observer at the Southern Illinois Airport in Carbondale saw an anemometer record a gust as high as 106 mph. Radar images taken at 1:28 p.m. show an “eye” feature that had developed north of Carbondale and moved over Murphysboro. Isolated embedded tornados were also recorded. All told, the destruction to towns, neighborhoods and homes was significant.
Luckily, nobody I knew was hurt, but everybody had damage in some form or another, whether it was fallen trees or a roof that blew off. Read more and check out some photos at the Southern Illinoisan web site.