The National Weather Service of the Quad Cities has confirmed an EF1 tornado struck Kewanee Monday night, causing extreme damage. According to NWS – Quad Cities, “Our storm survey team is still working on getting the specific details to us and that will be sent out as soon as possible. So as of right now we have 3 tornadoes confirmed all EF-1 (Davenport-East Moline, Taylor Ridge towards Sherrard and the Andover area, and Kewanee). The Derecho and Tornado moved the satellite on the roof of our Regional Media Studios. Thank you to our Engineer, Cameron, the satellite is back in place and the radio stations went back on-air. As of 8:30 AM, the Storm Prediction Center classified the July 15, 2024, storm system a Derecho.
Derecho (pronounced similar to “deh-REY-cho” in English, or pronounced phonetically as “deretjo”) is a widespread, long-lived wind storm. Derechos are associated with bands of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms variously known as bow echoes, squall lines, or quasi-linear convective systems.
Although a derecho can produce destruction similar to that of a tornado, the damage typically occurs in one direction along a relatively straight path. As a result, the term
“straight-line wind damage” is sometimes used to describe derecho damage. By definition, if the swath of wind damage extends at least 400 miles (about 650 kilometers), is at least 60 miles (about 100 km) wide, includes wind gusts of at least 58 mph (93 km/h) along most of its length, and also includes several, well-separated 75 mph (121 km/h) or greater gusts, the event may be classified as a derecho. The derecho-producing convective system also should contain certain radar-observed storm features such as bow echoes and rear-inflow jets (discussed below in Derecho-producing storms and Derecho development). This requirement was added in a revised definition of
“derecho” introduced in 2016 that was intended to make the definition more physically-based — i.e., focused on the meteorological processes believed responsible for the production of organized, damaging surface winds.
The City of Kewanee has designated the old hospital property as a drop-off for limbs and branches. City workers are clearing roadways and collecting tree debris for emergency routes first and then working through residential streets by trash collection day. Trash collection is one day late this week to allow city workers to clear roadways. There is no recycling pickup this week. Normal trash and recycling are expected to resume next week.
Ameren is working as fast as they safely can to repair/replace utility poles and lines, while also ensuring power lines are under trees are not live and safe for city crews to remove the trees. Ameren has additional crews from areas outside the storm revenged areas to assist with storm recovery. According to a release from Ameren, “Based on the magnitude of the storms with reported winds as high as 105MPH and the scope of the damage that we continue to assess, we project that 80% of customers impacted by storms on July 15 will be restored by 10:00 p.m. on July 17. As our assessments continue, customers will be notified of their specific restoration time once established. Crews are working as quickly and safely as possible to bring power back to our customers. We appreciate your patience and understanding.”
The Kewanee Park District has closed Baker Park and Windmont Park due to severe storm damage. The park district requests people to not enter Windmont Park until the downed power lines are deemed safe and removed. Baker Park Pleasure Drive was closed already due to downed trees from Sunday night’s storm.
The Cemetery Department was diligently working to clear tree damage from the Pleasantview Cemetery today, and they had the roads in the cemetery cleared, but they were all collecting the debris this afternoon.
Pictures will added to this post as they are uploaded. The pictures were sent to the NWS-QC as part of the Storm Spotter Program. We also provided Live coverage on our Facebook Page Monday night during the Storm.
Kewanee Tree/Branch Drop-off Area
Area 1 Ameren Storm Area Map
