F2 Tornado — Piatt, Illinois

2001-10-24 · near Monticello, Piatt, Illinois

Event narrative

An eyewitness reported that the tornado touched down on the southwest side of Monticello and traveled to the north northeast across town. It blew down numerous trees near the golf course then destroyed a storage building. In this area the tornado intensified to F2 Intensity (wind speeds of 120 to 130 mph) taking the roof of a church completely off and blew it into the roof of a nearby 2 story apartment building. The apartment building suffered severe damage and has been deemed uninhabitable. A farm implement building/business, which was close to 200 feet in length, had roughly three quarters of the building destroyed. Damage for this building was estimated at nearly $2 million, as several combines inside were severely damaged or destroyed. Debris from the building was thrown into a nearby power substation, causing a complete power outage to the town of 5,000 residents as well as neighboring communities. The tornado appeared to have lifted off the ground and stayed at tree top level for the remainder of its life through the town producing F0 damage. Numerous trees had the tops broken off and several large trees were uprooted. Once outside of town it did touch down briefly once more, damaging the roof of one home and destroying several outbuildings and a garage of another homestead about a mile north northeast of town. In this location, several 2 inch by 6 inch pieces of lumber from one of the machine sheds had shot through patio doors into the home. No injuries were reported due to the tornado. Damage is estimated around $2.2 million.

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Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5272379. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.