Lake Michigan windstorm 7-11-11

[jmendez29]

We had a pretty massive storm roll through my town today while I was at work. Winds upward of 70 MPH, but as far as I know, no tornado sightings. But a LOT of downed trees. There were a lot of streets closed to clean up the damage.


This is down by the waterfront. Holland, being a town of dutch heritage, is obviously proud of its windmills. We have the only functional and still working windmill in the US. This is not it, but it shows some of the damage and a few trees in the background are down as well.

A couple more down trees.

This is near a bike trail I like to ride on. The trail was completely blocked, not by this tree, but I stood near it to show how massive the tree was.

This is right by downtown. I was pretty impressed that the power poles were all knocked over. If a tree had fallen and taken the poles with it, I wouldn't have been nearly as impressed, but this is purely wind power.

This pic is of three trees in front of one of our landmarks. The carriage house in the background belongs to the Cappon House, which is the original house of the first mayor of the city of Holland in 18... whenever. The house didn't get damaged at all, thankfully, but it looks like a domino effect here.

From what I understand, there was a seiche warning on lake Michigan today. I know Chicago got a bunch of damage as well. Anyone else have any pictures or stories about this windstorm?

 

[avidhomebrewer]

The storm rolled through my area around 5 am CST, give or take, and woke me up rather quickly. It was over within 2 hours, but around Chicago, and your area, some rather significant damage.

 

[iaefebs]

From what I understand, there was a seiche warning on lake Michigan today.

Saw this warning for the first time ever. I thought it was a misspelling on the local news. We were getting ready to Tee off golfing and no one knew what a "seiche" warning was. You're post reminded me to google it. I thought Holland got the low end of the storm. I know I had to make some detours this morning to get around the floods but I am north of you. All I can say is it was a beautiful night for golf so I'm glad it blew through here quickly.

 

[Homercidal]

I'm a bit North of Holland. We didn't get the wind, but it got a nice short HEAVY rain.

I swear I had to turn the lights out in my office it was so dark outside, just to see the rain.

My wife's friend got home from work 2 hours earlier and woke up at "9 o'clock" and though she'd slept til night time and actually called her work to apologize for sleeping in! They told her she had only left 2 hours ago and it was still morning. It was that dark out.

The line of thunderstorms moving across downstate was pretty impressive.

 

[jmendez29]

I'm a bit North of Holland. We didn't get the wind, but it got a nice short HEAVY rain.

I swear I had to turn the lights out in my office it was so dark outside, just to see the rain.

My wife's friend got home from work 2 hours earlier and woke up at "9 o'clock" and though she'd slept til night time and actually called her work to apologize for sleeping in! They told her she had only left 2 hours ago and it was still morning. It was that dark out.

The line of thunderstorms moving across downstate was pretty impressive.

I wasn't in Holland when it happened, I was at work in South Haven. It was pretty crazy when the rains came. I had gone outside to get from one building to another, it was kinda dark but not raining, and the wind was a rather gentle breeze. I swear, I was inside all of about three minutes when I looked outside. Trees were almost sideways from the wind and rain was coming down in buckets. It was just crazy.

When I got home, I didn't see anything from the route that I drive home, but I got on my motorcycle to head into Grand Rapids. Even then, I didn't see anything until I was going back home. Traffic was backed up on my route, and in the slow traffic I noticed a few streets were closed due to massive trees blocking them. When I made it home, I decided to ride my bicycle across town to the LHBS and took pictures along the way. As I was riding through some of the neighborhoods, I could hear chainsaws running in peoples backyards. Probably about a dozen total.

So overall, the damage wasn't biblical or anything, just impressive in the places that it was. Probably the craziest part of all the damage I saw, none of it affected any homes in a major way. Maybe a damaged gutter or broken window, but no smashed roofs or anything like that. I'm sure there's damage out there, just none that I saw.

 

[glenn514]

We got hit with the very same storm system yesterday morning. It blew in around 700am. At around 900am, I ran a couple of errands in our teeming metropolis, and getting around was a real problem! LOTSA trees down, and some folks without power. Not much damage to buildings, but the trees really got hit hard...saw a walnut about six feet in diameter blown right over! We got about 1/2 inch of rain out of it. The corn was sure getting thirsty!

glenn514

 

[Steelers77]

We got hit here in Janesville pretty bad. Knocked down my Willemette, Cascade and Golding survived.

 

[TheMan]

I am just a little west of O'Hare airport in Illinois. I was driving to work yesterday morning and it felt like there could be a tornado anywhere. There was twigs and leaves swirling all around and branches fallen off trees blocking part of the roads. I can honestly say I was happy when I got to work...not a common feeling when I arrive lol