May 9, 2009 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- Gov. Pat Quinn has declared three southern Illinois counties disaster areas, following major storms.
Franklin, Jackson and Williamson counties are now receiving assistance from the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.
As a result of the storms, more than 63,000 customers were without electricity Saturday.
Southern Illinois University was forced to cancel its graduation ceremonies. Winds approximately 100 miles per hour toppled utility poles and knocked over trees.
It's still not clear if tornadoes touched down, but the governor is urging Carbondale area residents to take precautions during storms.
"I think everybody needs to use common sense when storms come along. That's exactly what happened yesterday. They were very high wind, but we're very happy to see that it appears that there was no serious injuries," Governor Quinn said.
Illinois state police troopers were helping direct traffic in storm-damaged areas Saturday, and the state transportation department was clearing branches from the roads.
As you can tell....I have no electricity. I went to my friend's house who has electricity about 30 minutes away to check my email. Most of the shingles on my roof is gone. Tom's girlfriend's house has a tree on it (about 1/2 of the residents in Carbondale have a tree down somewhere). There were about 90 trees on roads just in Carbondale. I was at school when it happened and you could hear the little kids screaming in terror down the halls. You could hear the roof peeling off of the building and things hitting the doors as they flew open and closed. It was pretty scary. Anyway, I'm fine, but we won't have electricity probably until Tuesday night. They are calling it an inland hurricane, because they recorded the winds in excess of 106 mph and it was widespread damage. CRAZINESS!
