As you may or may not know, Springfield on Sunday, March 12, was hit by what is estimated to be at least an F2 tornado. It was the first direct hit on the city in at least 50 years.
I’ve yet to venture out of my neighborhood, but as the title of the post suggests, where I live was mostly spared. But there was severe damage to retail areas less than a mile from my house: Several stores in the Parkway Pointe development lost their roofs. My sister and her family live a couple of minutes away, and the 40-plus year old silver maple in their front yard was uprooted and crashed into the front of their house. Luckily, they were in the basement.
Other neighborhoods in Springfield were not so lucky. The village of Jerome and the surrounding area was especially hard hit; I understand that several houses there were destroyed. The well-known Barrel Head Pub sustained major damage, and next door, the Paul Bunyanesque statue in front of an oil-change place was decapitated. And that’s just what’s near my house.
Areas to the south and east of downtown sustained severe damage as well as areas on the northeast side of town. To read and see more about the storm, visit www.sj-r.com. There are staff photo galleries from the night of March 12 and the aftermath on March 13, as well as reader-submitted photos.
