Storm damages property, pizza

Power outages in parts of Carbondale were troublesome, but not deadly

Power outages caused by a thunderstorm Tuesday night left Quatro’s with uncooked pizzas and an SIUC student’s brand new car totaled.

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Lightning hit several transformers and left some traffic lights on Illinois Avenue inoperable. George Sheppard, a public affairs representative for CIPS the electric company said the storm caused few power outages or electrical damages for Carbondale.

But one unlucky person was exposed to Mother’s Nature’s ugly side when she saw a tree topple on top of power lines along West McDaniel Street, and tumble on top of her two-week-old 2002 Honda Civic in a shower of sparks.

I ran towards the back room because I thought something might be hitting the house, said Stephanie Kirschner, a sophomore in speech communication from Marion who was visiting friends at 906 W. McDaniel St. when the thunderstorm began.

Brian Harrison was on the front porch and said he got thrown against the house’s outside wall by wind that brought down the tree, telephone poles, and several dozen feet of electrical wires, taking out the home’s telephone and electrical service.

I was thrown up against the house and the tree fell, said Harrison, a junior in industrial design from Villa Grove. It was quick.

His friend Andy Sineni said they were denying the possibility of being affected by the storm after seeing weather reports on television.

We were sitting inside and heard news reports, said Sineni, a junior in industrial design from Chicago. Then we were joking and kept saying, Oh, it’s not going to happen here’ and it happened outside the house.

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After the tree fell, Kirschner called 911 on her cell phone at 6:10 p.m. and also made a call to the Carbondale Fire Department. An official from the fire department came to access the situation at about 7:30 p.m., and the power company arrived about 15 minutes later. At press time, their power was still out.

With a transformer down with the pole, the surrounding neighbors had power outages. Wires were yanked from the front exterior wall of 905 W. McDaniel, across the street from the damaged car.

There were flames coming out of the end of the wire, said Jan Eisenhard. There were flames and then everything went out.

Eisenhard left her home to eat at Quatro’s, but found the power out there as well.

Jeff Formentini, the restaurant’s manager, said power was out from 6 p.m. to a little after 7 p.m.

Formentini said some customers left after the outage, but others waited until the restaurant’s power was restored.

We had to shut down everything, Formentina said.

Reporter Ben Botkin can be reached at [email protected].